


All Or Nothing

by OfEndlessWonder



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Balcony Sex, F/F, Neighbour AU, Semi-Public Sex, Strap-Ons, artist!kara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-06-08 01:35:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 148,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6833449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfEndlessWonder/pseuds/OfEndlessWonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She finally, finally, takes in the sight of the woman standing in-front of her and the rest of her furious words die in the back of her throat because oh, oh, no-one should look like that. Tall and blonde and so very gorgeous, barely in her mid-twenties with sparkling apologetic eyes, a pair of sinfully tight black jeans on her hips and a sleeveless t-shirt to show off the muscle in those arms that had caught Cat so quickly." AKA the hot neighbour AU that no-one asked for or needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm baaaack. 
> 
> This is an AU, something a little lighter and fluffier than I've written before. Kara doesn't have any powers in this universe, and she's never worked at CatCo. For the most part, the characters' backstories are as similar to canon as possible; any changes will be mentioned. 
> 
> My original plan with this one was to finish writing it before I started posting it, buuut it's gotten a little longer than I anticipated so I changed my mind. Updates will be pretty regular, but probably not to the same extent as my last few stories in this fandom; there won't be a schedule until all the chapters are written, and who knows how long that will be. I'm aiming for 20, but we shall see... 
> 
> Huge, huge thanks to residentgeekmonkey for all her help with this story, I don't think I could've done it without you. 
> 
> I'd love to hear all your thoughts about this one, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

_When I first saw you standing there,_

_You know, it was a little hard not to stare._

* * *

“Can we play Settlers of Catan later?” Carter asks as Cat is steering him inside their building with a hand at the small of his back, nodding politely to the security guard sitting behind the front desk as they head towards the elevators.

“After you’ve finished your homework,” Cat tells him, because she knows for a fact that he hadn’t finished his algebra from the night before but she’d had a horrendous week at work and was happy for the distraction of watching a movie with him, his school work long forgotten.

“Fine.” He’s pouting, Cat doesn’t need to look at his face to know that, but she just rolls her eyes as she stabs at the button for the thirtieth floor with her thumb.

Her phone buzzes with an email as the doors are sliding open, and Cat fishes the phone from her pocket to read it, attention on her screen as she walks the familiar path down the hall towards her apartment.

When they’d left to go out for ice cream earlier that morning, the hallway had been empty; Cat hadn’t expected that to change, so she’s not as aware of her surroundings as she probably should be, doesn’t notice the cardboard boxes that litter the floor until she’s tripping over one, Carter’s warning shout echoing in her ears as she stumbles, ankle twisting in her heel.

She’s waiting for the floor to come rushing to meet her when a pair of strong hands catch her, wrapping around her upper arms and steadying her, though her phone isn’t so lucky, slips from her hands and bounces a little way down the hall.

“I am so sorry - ” An unfamiliar voice is starting to spout apologies, but Cat has no time for them, not when her ankle is aching and her phone screen is probably shattered and she doesn’t have _time_ for this, is already sure, as she turns her head to take in the assortment of boxes littering the hall, that she and her apparent new neighbour will _not_ be getting along one bit.

“What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing?” Cat wrenches herself out of the girl’s – because she doesn’t sound very old, sounds nervous and timid and the vindictive part of Cat wants to destroy her – grip and takes a step back, wincing as her ankle threatens to buckle under her weight. “This,” she waves a hand around them, “is unacceptable, not to mention extremely hazardous, what is - ”

She finally, finally, takes in the sight of the woman standing in-front of her and the rest of her furious words die in the back of her throat because oh, _oh_ , no-one should look like _that_. Tall and blonde and so very gorgeous, barely in her mid-twenties with sparkling apologetic eyes, a pair of sinfully tight black jeans on her hips and a sleeveless t-shirt to show off the muscle in those arms that had caught Cat so quickly.

“I’m so sorry,” she’s saying again, looking down at Cat with timid eyes and a sheepish expression, and Cat’s anger dissipates with every second that this woman looks at her and that is _unacceptable_. “But in my defence, you should have probably looked where you were going.”

Cat hears Carter suck in a sharp breath behind her, and the woman shoots him a curious look before turning back to Cat, eyes widening slightly when she sees the look on her face.

“Your boxes,” Cat replies stiffly, poking one of them with her un-injured foot, “shouldn’t be lining my hallway.”

“Our hallway,” comes the quiet reply, and then there’s a smile on her face and Cat should absolutely not be so affected by it but her heart thumps faster in her chest all the same. “I’m Kara.” She holds out a hand, but Cat doesn’t reach out to take it, and she shrugs and lets it fall back to her side. “Your new neighbour.”

“Unfortunately,” Cat sniffs, and Kara’s lips twitch. She finds herself wondering how someone so young can afford somewhere like this, because it’s one of the most expensive buildings in the city, but Cat tells herself it’s not her place to ask.

“And you’re Cat Grant.” She raises an eyebrow, surprised, but Kara only shrugs again. “You’re the most powerful woman in the city.” Cat offers her a pleased smile, and Kara’s grin widens before she’s glancing over Cat’s shoulder. “I don’t know who this little guy is, though.”

Cat feels Carter shrink into her side, uncomfortable and unused to people he doesn’t know, and she wraps a steady arm around his shoulders until she feels him relax against her.

“Sorry,” Kara says as she notices his discomfort, and Cat is surprised (and also a little pleased) when in response she simply turns her gaze away and takes a couple of steps backwards. “You’re shy, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I talk too much when I’m nervous.” She offers that to Carter, her voice little higher than a conspiratorial whisper, and Cat glances down to see his lips pulling into a shy smile though his eyes are still fixed on the floor. “I’ll let you two get home, it was nice to meet you.”

“It was nice to meet you, too, Kiera.” There’s an amused smile on Kara’s face like she knows that Cat is mispronouncing her name on purpose, but she doesn’t call her out on it as she steps aside to let the two of them pass.

“And I’m sorry about the box,” she murmurs apologetically, as Cat limps past her. “You should probably put some ice on that ankle.”

“You look a little young to be a doctor,” Cat replies dryly as she’s searching for her keys in her handbag, glancing over her shoulder to find Kara leaning her shoulder back against the wall.

“Oh, I’m not. Far from it – I’m an artist.” Well, if she’s a good one then that explains the apartment, Cat thinks, taking the woman in with renewed interest – she notices the flecks of paint under her nails, the pencil behind her ear and the faint dusting of charcoal on her fingers and hums quietly, wondering how she’d missed it before.

“Is…” The sound of Carter’s small voice has Cat looking down at him in shock, but his gaze isn’t on her – it’s focused on a canvas painting leaning against the wall, and Cat watches him take a tentative step towards it, barely breathing. “Is this your painting?”

He darts a glance up at Kara, who’s looking back at him with a fond smile and nods, though she doesn’t move from where she’s leaning, several feet away.

“Uh-huh. You like it?” Carter’s always been a fan of art, ever since Cat had taken him into the Louvre on their first trip to Paris. Cat’s lost count of the number of galleries and exhibitions that she’s allowed him to drag her to, since – it’s always worth it for the look of joy he gets on his face, much like the one that’s blossoming there now.

“Yeah.” He gazes down at it with careful eyes before blinking and raising his head to meet Kara’s eyes, and Cat can barely believe what she’s seeing. “It’s really good.”

“Thanks, little man.”

“Carter,” he offers quietly, and Kara’s smile widens, and Cat can’t help an answering one spreading across her own face, because Carter… he’s such a shy, quiet boy, keeps to himself, always, and struggles to interact with people that aren’t his mother. He even struggles with his father, sometimes, even more so now that he’s gotten himself a new fiancée half his age that couldn’t care less about the son her soon-to-be husband shares with Cat.

Cat has never seen him speak to a veritable stranger like this, so effortlessly and _easily_ , and she can’t help but let some of that amazement creep into her gaze as she watches them.

“Well,” Kara begins as she pushes from the wall and comes to stand in-front of him, bending her knees slightly that so they’re the same height. “It’s nice to meet you, Carter.”

“You too,” he replies shyly, and Cat nearly falls over when he hesitantly extends a hand towards her and shakes her hand like Cat had refused to do earlier.

“If your Mom lets you,” she says then, keeping her voice low like it’s meant for Carter’s ears only, but still loud enough for Cat to clearly make out, and Cat marvels at how good Kara is managing to be with her son, “you can come over sometime and check out some of my other work.”

“Really?” His voice is laced with excitement, and Cat knows that she’d never be able to say no. “When?!”

“Give the girl a chance to settle in first,” Cat warns gently, but Kara is already shaking her head.

“Oh, no, it’s okay, Miss Grant.” Cat finds herself almost remiss at the title, instead of her name – she had liked the way it sounded coming from her mouth, earlier. “My art’s already settled, for the most part. My studio was the first thing I set up before I even thought about moving the rest of my stuff over. In fact, it’s ready now, if you’re not busy.”

“Can we, Mom?” Carter turns to look at her with imploring eyes, and Cat rolls hers like it’s an inconvenience when really she’s almost as curious as Carter is, because even though she’s not much of an artist herself, the painting in the hallway is beautiful, and Kara must be excellent at what she does to afford an apartment like this.

“Very well, if Kiera doesn’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Carter falls into step beside Kara as she turns towards her front door, propped open to make heaving the boxes inside easier, and Cat follows a couple of steps behind. “I’ll get you some ice,” Kara murmurs when she glances behind her to see Cat wincing a little as she rolls her ankle experimentally in her shoe, “you should probably sit down, too.”

“Is that your expert opinion?” Cat asks dryly as she steps inside the apartment, open-plan and of a very similar layout to her own, and watches Kara hurry over towards the freezer in the kitchen, returning with an icepack held carefully in her hands, Carter hovering nervously a few paces in-front of them.

“Yep.” Cat takes the icepack from her and ignores the jolt that shoots through her when their fingers brush, biting down any further observations of how gorgeous she is, because she’s probably half her age, probably straight, and probably not interested in getting involved with a fifty-year old with two sons who’s practically married to her job. “My studio’s this way.”

Carter bounces along beside her as she leads the two of them down the hall to press open a nondescript door, and Cat leans to press the ice against her foot as she takes in the sight of the room beyond.

It’s beautiful, all hardwood floors and white walls, several paintings already mounted on them and three easels sitting in the centre of the room, a stack of canvases leaning against one of the walls. There’s colour everywhere, and Cat hears Carter’s breath catch as he gazes around with wide eyes, both of them admiring the works on display.

“C’mere.” Kara beckons Carter over to the stack in the corner, begins to riffle through them and lets him look at each and every single one. Cat listens as he asks questions and listens intently to Kara’s answers, watching them with a fond smile, still amazed that her son has taken to someone he’s only just met so quickly, and wonders absentmindedly if Kara has some sort of superpower.

She hears some noise from behind her and turns to find another two boxes being brought into view and is surprised when she recognises one of the people carrying them – her relatively new art director, James Olsen.

“Miss Grant,” he says when he sees her, blinking at her with surprise, and Cat is sure the same expression is showing on her own face, too. “What are you doing here?”

“I live across the hall.” She’s almost about to ask him the same question, but then Kara and Carter appear at her shoulder, apparently having heard the noise.

“James!” There’s a wide smile on her face and Cat wonders, absently, and knowing that she really shouldn’t care, if the two of them are dating. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought I’d come help,” he shrugs as he deposits the box onto the kitchen table. “Alex mentioned you might need it. I think her arms were getting tired.” The woman that he’d come in with, Alex, Cat assumes, smacks him on the shoulder, making him wince.

“My arms would be fine if my sister would stop making new friends and actually help move all her shit out of the car.” Kara rolls her eyes and Cat makes a note of the relationship (and the way that the sister is eyeing her curiously).

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Alex just snorts before she and James turn to make their way back out into the hall. “Sorry,” Kara glances at Carter and then Cat with apologetic eyes, “but I probably should go and help them.”

“It’s okay,” Carter replies before Cat can manage it, a bright smile on his face that makes Cat look at Kara wonderingly. “Thanks for letting me be nosy.”

“Anytime, Carter,” Kara replies warmly, and when she raises her head to meet Cat’s gaze and sees the way she’s looking at them intently, her cheeks flush pink and Cat smirks, wondering if she’s easily flustered (and what fun she might be able to have with that, should they meet again). “You’re welcome to come back whenever you want.”

“Thank you,” Cat murmurs quietly, because this is the most she’s seen Carter smile in a while – he’s been having some trouble at school that Cat is struggling to deal with – and it warms her heart and makes her feel more gratitude towards this woman that she barely knows than she’d ever be able to put into words.

“It’s no trouble.” Her smile is genuine, and Cat wonders if she’s always so… _sunny_. “I… I’m opening my gallery in the city on Friday night.” She’s looking at Cat a little shyly, like she’s afraid of what she’s going to say. “And you’re both more than welcome to come, if you’d like.”

“We’d love to!” Carter answers on behalf of them both, and Cat chuckles lightly when he remembers himself and glances towards her cautiously. “Right, Mom?”

“I’m sure we can manage it.” Carter’s smile is wide and so is hers when she throws his arms around her waist in a grateful hug, and Cat runs a hand along the small of his back, Kara’s eyes sparkling as she watches them with a fond smile of her own. “Do you have the details?”

“Uh, yeah.” Kara bites her lip (and Cat tries not to dwell on how _distracting_ that is) as she glances around herself before she reaches for a stack of flyers that sit on the coffee table in-front of the couch. “Here,” she says as she hands one towards Cat, their fingers brushing once more, and Cat doesn’t think she imagines the slight intake of breath that comes from the other woman or the way her cheeks flush under Cat’s heavy gaze. “All the details are on there.”

“Thank you.” She hands the icepack back to her, because it had thawed some time ago and her leg is starting to feel a little better. “If there’s an open bar I’ll forgive you for nearly breaking my ankle.”

“There’s not, I’m afraid, but how about I buy you a drink instead?”

“I suppose that’ll do.” There’s a smile playing around the edges of Kara’s lips as she nods, and Cat finds herself willing the week to pass quickly so that they’ll be able to see one another again.

x-x-x

“Mom, are you ready yet?” Cat lets out an exasperated sigh as the question comes through her closed bedroom door – for the fourth time in less than half an hour – as she’s finishing up the final touches of her make-up. “We’re going to be late.”

“We’re not going to be late,” Cat calls to her son as she rises from her vanity and slips into a pair of heels that she knows make her legs look fantastic, slipping a blazer over the black and white dress she’d chosen for the occasion, hugging her curves in all the right places and with a neckline low enough to give just a glimpse of the cleavage beneath.

She’s dressed to impress, and it’s silly – stupid, even – because she shouldn’t _want_ to be impressing anyone tonight. No more than usual, anyway. But she’s… she hasn’t been able to stop _thinking_ about her stupid new neighbour with those easy, sunny smiles and bright eyes.

She’s only ever caught the briefest of glimpses of her since that first day, and she thinks one of them will be burned into her mind for the rest of her life. Cat had been heading into work, had been on the phone and snapping at her assistant but she’d completely forgotten what she was saying as Kara had come striding towards her, wearing only a sports bra and leggings, her hair in a loose ponytail, sweat beading across her skin and her breathing laboured from a run, and those _abs_ have haunted Cat’s mind (and dreams) ever since.

Kara had smirked like she knew exactly why Cat had gone completely silent, and she’d cursed herself for her obvious reaction for the rest of the day.

And she shouldn’t have put on a dress like this with Kara in mind, with the desire to make _her_ speechless, this time, because it’s… well, it’s never going to happen and Cat shouldn’t _care_ and yet, here she is.

Dressed to kill for a gallery opening and probably horrendously overdressed, but perhaps the look on Kara’s face will be worth it.

Carter is waiting outside of her bedroom door, tapping his foot against the floor and dressed in his best suit, ready to go. Cat smiles as he hurries her out of the front door and down into the waiting car, finding his enthusiasm endearing.

This has been all he’s been able to talk about all week, despite the fact that he hasn’t seen Kara at all in that time, and Cat rarely gets to see him so animated. He’d googled Kara the second that they’d gotten back into their apartment last Saturday and learned everything there was to know about the woman (and Cat had done a little snooping of her own, later, and told herself that it was only because she needed to know if the woman could be trusted around her son), and he’s been springing facts on Cat ever since.

Kara has very quickly become his new favourite person, despite them only meeting the once, and Cat is still amazed by it.

The gallery is downtown, and several people are already milling outside on the curb when they arrive. Cat gives the building a cursory glance as she tells her driver she’ll call when they need picking up, takes in the huge glass windows and the beautiful lighting within, Kara’s name emblazoned proudly above the door.

Cat has to keep a hand on Carter’s arm as they step inside to stop him from disappearing into the crowd without her, keeping him close as she watches him scan the room, knows he’s found Kara when his eyes light up before he’s dragging Cat over towards her.

“Kara!” He calls when he nears her, and she turns from where she’d been involved in a conversation with James and her sister and smiles when she sees Cat and Carter approaching.

“Hey, Carter. Miss Grant.” Kara’s eyes flit from Carter to her and then she does a double-take, admiring the dress with appreciative eyes. “You came.” Cat allows herself to take in the sight of Kara in return – she’s wearing a tux, black pants and white shirt tailored to fit her perfectly, and Cat can’t help but let her eyes linger at where the last two buttons of the shirt are undone, revealing an expanse of smooth skin and collarbones that she thinks she wouldn’t mind running her tongue along.

“Of course we came.” Carter looks up at Kara with an adoring gaze, and her answering smile is radiant, and oh, Cat thinks she might be very, very screwed because if she’d thought Kara was gorgeous before it’s nothing compared to how she looks now.

“I’m glad you did. And you look very smart,” she tells him, and Carter practically beams. “And you,” Kara murmurs, eyes turning to Cat as she takes a small step forward, Cat finding it suddenly hard to breathe with the close proximity, “look beautiful.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” Cat replies, trailing her eyes lazily over Kara’s figure once more and delighting in the way her cheeks colour beneath the weight of her gaze. “You clean up surprisingly well.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” There’s an amused smile on her mouth, and her lips look so very inviting and Cat can’t help but glance down at them, tongue sliding out to wet her own, and she has to fight a smirk when she sees Kara’s throat work as she swallows beneath Cat’s scrutiny.

“It’s as close as you’re likely to get from me,” Cat tells her, Kara biting her bottom lip to hide her smile.

“I’ll take it. I believe I owe you a drink?” Cat hums quietly. “Pick your poison.”

“Seeing as I doubt the bartenders here are equipped to make a martini to my specifications,” Cat murmurs as she glances towards the makeshift bar at one end of the room, “I’ll take a bourbon. Neat.”

“The most expensive one they have?” Kara teases, and Cat smirks.

“Naturally.”

“Only the best for you,” Kara agrees in a murmur, her eyes bright. “Can I get you anything, Carter?” He shakes his head. “Okay, well,” she takes a step back and gestures to the space around them, “feel free to take a look around, and I’ll come and find you.”

Cat lets Carter drag her towards the paintings that are littered around the room, stands behind him whilst he takes them in with a critical eye. They’re beautiful, you don’t have to have an artists’ gaze to see that, and Cat scans her eyes across them appreciatively, raising an eyebrow when she sees the price tag attached to some of the pieces.

There are photographs amongst the canvases, and Cat finds that those are her favourites, huge black and white prints that are hauntingly beautiful. She recognises one as the view from Kara’s apartment; it’s when she’s standing in-front of that one that the woman finds them again, stretching out a hand with a glass of amber liquid within it towards Cat, a glass of red wine held in her other.

“You have a good eye,” Cat murmurs as she takes the glass, lifting the bourbon to her lips and sighing appreciatively as it slides down the back of her throat. “These are incredible.”

“Thank you,” Kara replies softly, practically glowing at the compliment.

“Perhaps I should fire my art director and hire you, instead.” She hasn’t seen James since Carter had torn Kara away from him earlier, and Kara grins at the words.

“I don’t think James would like it very much if I stole his job.” Cat hums in acknowledgement. “And I love painting too much to give it up.” Cat’s eyes had been on Carter, hovering in-front of a painting of a hilltop a few feet away, but she turns her head once she decides he’s not going to be moving for a while to find Kara watching her with an open, relaxed gaze.

“It shows,” Cat murmurs, because it’s obvious, even to her, that each and every single piece in this room has been painstakingly crafted, is filled with love and adoration and _feeling_. “You’re very talented.” She flushes, gaze darting away, and Cat thinks she likes her like this, flustered and beautiful.

“I do okay,” she shrugs, eyes still glancing away, though they dart back to Cat’s face when she tuts.

“I’d say you’re doing more than okay,” she murmurs, raising her glass to gesture around the room. “You’re twenty five and you have your own gallery, and I know you’ve already sold at least two pieces tonight.” Kara looks pleased by Cat’s knowledge, eyes twinkling and a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. “You just managed to buy an apartment that I know for a fact doesn’t come cheap, and all of the people in this room are here for you.”

“How do you know how old I am?” Kara asks, amusement shining in those blue, blue eyes. “Did you google me?”

“Carter did. You’re his new idol, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a whole file on you tucked away under his bed.” Kara just raises an eyebrow like she knows that’s not the whole truth, and Cat rolls her eyes. “And I did some checking of my own, yes.”

“And why’s that?” Kara is stepping closer to her, voice a little lower than it was before, and Cat can feel her heart beat a little quicker in response as she breathes in the scent of her perfume.

“I wanted to make sure my new neighbour wasn’t hiding any skeletons in her closet.” Kara laughs, the sound almost musical, and Cat thinks she wouldn’t mind hearing it over and over again.

“Yeah? And what did you find?”

“Nothing terrible,” Cat replies, tilting her head back a little to be able to look her in the eye and smirking when Kara uses the opportunity to run her eyes along the column of Cat’s throat. “Most of it was quite boring.”

“I haven’t led the most interesting of lives,” Kara agrees with a small smile. “I just got lucky.”

“With talent like this?” Cat asks with a shake of her head. “There’s nothing lucky about it. You deserve it. There’s one thing I would like to know, though,” Cat continues, and Kara eyes her warily. “Why give up New York for National City?”

“Why do I feel like I’m being interviewed?” Kara asks, but her voice is light, her posture still relaxed, and Cat smiles.

“Because I’m an investigative journalist and perhaps I’d like to write a story on you in an upcoming edition of CatCo.”

“Me? _Why_?”

“Because you’re interesting. Young, successful… beautiful.” Kara’s cheeks flush yet again, and Cat’s smile widens. “We do a section every year, on National City’s top thirty under thirty. I think you more than qualify. And you haven’t answered my question.”

“I moved here because of my sister,” Kara replies, eyes flitting over Cat’s shoulder to where Alex presumably stands. “I went to New York for college, and she lived with me out there for a while, but she got offered a job here and moved a couple of years ago. I missed her, so,” Kara shrugs. “I moved here, too.”

“You must be close.”

“She’s the most important person in my life,” Kara murmurs, voice quiet. “I… I lost my parents when I was young.” She glances away from Cat’s gaze, stares down at the wine glass in her hand. “And I got put with a foster family and they were the nicest people in the whole world but I… I still missed my parents. But Alex… she tried so hard to make me feel at home. She’d do anything for me, and I for her.”

“I’m sorry.” Cat’s free hand reaches for Kara’s wrist before she can talk herself out of it, squeezing gently and ignoring the soft intake of breath the contact invokes from the other woman. “I didn’t know, about your parents.”

“It’s okay, not many people do.”

“I still have my mother – not that we get along,” Cat adds, more than little bitterly, “but I lost my father when I was seven. It’s never an easy thing. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

“You didn’t know.” Kara’s eyes swim with something dark, but her smile is genuine. “Are you actually enjoying yourself tonight, or are you only here because of Carter?”

“I’m enjoying the company,” Cat murmurs, because her glass is nearly drained and it’s gone straight to her head, and there’s something about Kara that makes her want to be more reckless than she would normally dare.

There’s something almost exhilarating about her, something that makes Cat want to draw closer and closer to her, drawn like a moth to a flame. And it should make her dangerous, but Cat finds that she doesn’t even want to try and stay away.

“Even though I’m sure you’re in high demand around here,” she adds, watching the way Kara’s eyes brighten at the words, “so I don’t know why you’re spending all your time with me.”

“I’ve never been able to resist a beautiful woman.”

“Kara.” James appears at her elbow, hand closing around her arm, and Cat realises belatedly that her own hand is still resting on Kara’s wrist, her skin soft beneath her fingertips, and she drops her arm quickly back down to her side. “There are some people over here that are interested in hearing about some of your work.”

Cat doesn’t miss the way Kara leans into the touch, like she’s used to it, like it’s happened a thousand times before, and she finds her eyes narrowing in spite of herself, which is _ridiculous_ , because she barely knows this woman and she absolutely should not be _jealous_ because someone else is touching her with an easy familiarity.

“I’ll be over there in a minute,” she tells him, gaze never straying from Cat’s face. James glances between the two of them with an amused little smile, shakes his head and murmurs ‘alright’ before walking away. “Sorry, duty calls.”

“That’s quite alright,” Cat murmurs, eyes tracking James as he makes his way over to the other side of the room. “You should go and spend some time with your boyfriend.”

“James?” Kara asks with a hint of disbelief in her voice, and then she’s laughing again with a shake of her head. “James is not my boyfriend.”

“No?”

“No, Miss Grant.” Kara dares to take another step closer, and Cat stands her ground, the movement almost pressing them flush together. “I am very much single, and in-case you didn’t notice,” Kara bends her head to murmur the words against Cat’s ear, breath hot against her skin, “I’ve been flirting with you all night.”

With that, and before Cat has the chance to respond, dumbstruck by the other woman’s bold words, Kara is straightening up and walking away, and Cat swears there’s a deliberate sway to her hips, can’t tear her eyes away as she watches her go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The response to the first chapter of this blew me away, thank you all so, so much <3 
> 
> I also realised that I forgot to mention that the POV will switch between chapters; I hope you enjoy a look at this world through Kara's eyes just as much.

“You look bored,” Kara murmurs close to Cat’s ear when she finally gets the chance to speak to her again, escaping from the latest crowd of people eager to talk to her. As much as Kara adores her job, the thing she hates the most is events like these, where all eyes are on her, where there’s an endless stream of people wanting to talk to her and ask her things – she’d much rather be holed up in her studio with a brush in her hand than watching nervously as strangers pour over her work with critical eyes.

She knows it’s necessary, that she needs a public face, but it never makes a gallery opening like this any easier, never eases the nerves that summersault in her stomach in the days leading up to it and the night itself.

Tonight, though, she’d almost been looking forward to this; partly because it’s her first exhibition in this city, and partly because of the woman standing before her, and the son Kara’s spied staring at one of her paintings a few feet away, Cat’s careful gaze on his back though she does turn towards Kara at the sound of her voice.

“So do you,” Cat answers with a small smile, a fresh glass of bourbon held in one of her hands. She lifts it to her lips and Kara is transfixed by the way her throat works when she swallows, longs to trace her tongue over the same path. “Considering this is all for you.”

“Which I hate,” Kara tells her conversationally, leaning one shoulder back against the wall behind her and turning her body to face Cat – she doesn’t miss the way Cat’s eyes dip down to her lips, just like she hadn’t missed her gaze lingering at the open buttons of her shirt when they’d first laid eyes on one another earlier that evening.

Kara’s sure that she did a little staring of her own, because Cat looks _gorgeous_ , the dress sinfully tight and making it extremely difficult for Kara to think – she’s almost amazed when a coherent sentence leaves her mouth under the heavy weight of Cat’s gaze.

Cat is the most beautiful woman in the room, and Kara has barely been able to think about anyone else since the day they’d met.

Which was stupid, because she was Cat Grant, Cat Queen-of-all-Media-Grant, and she wouldn’t look at Kara twice if they crossed one another in the street. Except she had – only because of her son, and god, is Kara glad for that wonderful kid – and now she’s here, at Kara’s opening, because she’d asked her.

_And_ she’d said that she wasn’t just here for Carter, that she was enjoying Kara’s company.

She’s going to be giddy for the next week, she’s sure.

“Don’t like being the centre of attention?” Cat’s eyes are bright and more than a little curious as they look up at her, and Kara is elated that she isn’t shying away, that Kara hadn’t pushed things too far when she’d told Cat outright that she was flirting with her, that she was _interested_.

Usually she wouldn’t be so bold, but Cat is gorgeous and there’s something about her that makes Kara want to be reckless. Kara has always known that Cat is something else, because she’s been aware of her career for years – had admired her meteoric rise to power, to become the head of her own company, and if not for her big break in her dream career, Kara wonders if she might have perhaps ended up somewhere in journalism, instead, working under someone like Cat – but to meet her in person… she’s captivating, and Kara is completely enraptured by her and can barely believe that Cat’s willing to give her the time of day.

“ _Hate_ it,” Kara tells her, with a delicate shudder. “Events like these are my worst nightmare. Something which I’m sure you probably can’t imagine.”

“Oh, on the contrary,” Cat replies quietly, fingers tapping absentmindedly against the side of her glass – Kara is reminded of the feeling of them curling around her wrist, her blood is still thrumming from the ghost of Cat’s touch. “I hate them, too. Not being in the public eye,” she admits with a small smirk, “but premieres and galas and charity dinners… I’d much rather be at home with my son, wearing sweatpants and without these godforsaken heels.”

“I think that’s a sight I’d like to see,” Kara murmurs, biting at her bottom lip when Cat leans closer. “Not that I don’t appreciate this outfit,” she adds, allowing her gaze to flit over Cat’s figure, not missing the pleased smirk that Cat’s lips curve in to. “Because I _do_.”

“Does flattery usually work for you?” Cat’s voice is light, teasing, and a world away from what Kara would have ever imagined it to be around her.

“I don’t know, you tell me.” Cat’s smirk widens, and this time, when Kara bites her lip, Cat’s eyes flicker down and Kara wonders if she’s wondering what it would be like to kiss her.

“Mm, could be better.” Her eyes sparkle as Kara pouts in mock offence. “But I have heard worse. Tonight, in fact.” She nods towards some guy in a suit with salt and pepper hair who’s eyeing them curiously. “You are much easier on the eyes.”

Kara grins, though she can’t stop the slight flush of colour that rushes to her cheeks at the compliment, because she’d never in a million years expect someone like Cat Grant to ever even talk to her, let alone tell her she thought she was pretty.

“Can’t blame him for trying, I guess,” Kara shrugs, turning her attention back to Cat and feeling like they’re the only two in the room.

“Oh, but I wish he hadn’t.” Kara’s grin widens, and any reply she might have made is lost as Carter comes rushing towards them, tucking himself into Cat’s side and looking up at Kara with a shy smile that warms her heart.

“Did you tell her yet?” He asks, peering up at his Mom, who shakes her head with a small smile.

“No, Carter, not yet.” Kara raises an inquisitive eyebrow. “I’m interested in buying one of your pieces,” she tells her, and Kara feels surprise blossom across her face, even as that warmth inside her chest burns brighter.

“Oh, Miss Grant, you don’t have to - ”

“I want to,” Cat interrupts her, curling her free hand around Carter’s shoulder. “ _We_ want to.”

“It’s my favourite one,” Carter tells her, and then he’s reaching hesitantly for Kara’s hand and pulling her along to the piece in question, Cat following in their wake. She doesn’t miss the quiet amazement on Cat’s face as she looks down at their joined hands, the same expression she’d had when Carter had offered Kara his name, and she wonders what it means. “And my Mom likes it, too.”

It’s a simple landscape of the mountains, a lake glittering in the moonlight in the foreground – it’s in bleak, dark colours, hauntingly beautiful and exactly the kind of thing she could imagine hanging proudly on the wall of Cat Grant’s apartment.

“It’s very good,” Cat murmurs at her shoulder, voice filled with the same reverence that Kara feels in her heart whenever she’s working on something new. “And very beautiful, just like its artist.” She says that too quietly for Carter to hear, and Kara’s smile is soft. “Carter’s already decided the perfect place to hang it.”

“You’ll have to come and see it one day,” he tells her, still holding onto her hand, and Kara squeezes it gently in gratitude. She’s never been particularly good with kids, but Carter is sweet and so very kind, shy in a way that reminds her of the way she used to be, in her first few months with the Danvers’, and she’d warmed to him immediately.

The fact that his mother was an actual goddess was just an added bonus.

“I’d like that.” Carter beams, and Kara feels that warmth spread through her once again, growing when she sees the way Cat watches them with a soft, almost tender expression on her face. Kara wonders how it’s possible for her to be to affected by someone she hardly knows, is almost dizzy from it, but there isn’t a single cell in her body that wants it to stop. “Do you paint, Carter?”

“No,” he replies with a small, sad shake of his head. “I don’t think I’d be very good.”

“Have you ever tried?” He shakes his head again, and Kara smiles down at him. “Then how do you know? Maybe I’ll teach you one day, if that’s something you’d want.” His face lights up, and Kara shoots Cat a cursory glance. “If your Mom would be okay with that, obviously.”

“I don’t see why it would be a problem.”

“Really?” Carter asks, peering up at Kara like he doesn’t quite believe her, and she nods.

“Really. It would be an honour to spend some more time with a kid as awesome as you.” His cheeks flush red and Kara grins as he quickly turns back to look at the painting to hide his blush, letting go of her hand to step closer, nose practically against the canvas.

“You’re very good with him,” Cat presses close against Kara to murmur the words so that Carter doesn’t hear them, bare arm brushing against hers and making it hard for Kara to remember how to breathe. “He doesn’t… connect to people easily.”

“I noticed how surprised you are whenever he talks to me.”

“I’ve never seen him take to someone so quickly before,” she admits quietly, and when Kara turns her head it’s to find Cat watching her with a close kind of scrutiny that makes her shiver. “It’s… well, it’s amazing, really. Extraordinary. And I want to… to thank you.” Kara can tell that the words don’t come easily to Cat, wonders how often she says them. “For making such an effort with him.”

“It’s really no problem,” Kara replies with a shrug, trying desperately to ignore the heat of Cat’s skin against hers. “I meant what I said – he’s a great kid. And you…” She trails off, biting her lip as she searches for the right words, meeting Cats gaze and wondering if it’s possible to drown in pools of green. “You’re pretty extraordinary yourself. You managed to build yourself a media empire while single-handedly raising an awesome kid.”

“Now who’s been doing the googling?” Cat teases, and Kara just grins. Cat leans back a little as Carter smothers a yawn, glances down at her watch and frowns when she sees the time. “We should probably be getting back home.” She sounds a little put out, and Carter pouts, but it’s soon wiped away by another yawn. Cat fishes around in her handbag before pulling out a business card, pressing it into Kara’s hand. “Call this number to take care of the painting.”

“And what number should I call if I want to see you again?” She dares to ask, because when Cat walks out of that door, despite her living so close by, Kara doesn’t know when their paths will next cross, and the thought makes her more anxious than she’d care to admit.

“None,” Cat murmurs smoothly, and Kara wonders if her disappointment shows on her face when her lips curve into yet another smirk. “You can knock on my front door, instead. You millennials are so lazy,” she tuts, though there’s little malice in her tone. “Thank you, for inviting us tonight.”

“My pleasure. I hope you had fun.”

“It wasn’t a terrible way to spend my Friday night.” Carter’s smile makes Kara thinks that that is a high compliment indeed. “It was nice to see you again, Kiera.” Kara rolls her eyes at the name, because she _knows_ for a fact that Cat knows her real one, but she doesn’t comment on it – that’s a conversation for another night. “And hopefully we’ll see you again soon.”

Carter bids her goodnight before they’re striding away, through the glass doors and into a town car idling at the curb outside, and Kara thinks, as she turns back to survey the room, that her dreams are going to be haunted by gorgeous green eyes and flashes of smooth pale skin for many nights to come.

x-x-x

She realises her mistake the second that her apartment door clicks closed behind her, locking automatically, but she doesn’t have time to try and rectify it, already going to be at least several minutes late to a meeting downtown with a potential client who wants to pay her a handsome sum to commission a piece for her twentieth wedding anniversary.

And she’s so busy with her meeting and then rushing around picking up and unpacking the new art supplies she’d bought for the studio at the back of the gallery and the classes she plans to hold there once she’s got herself up and running, that she only _remembers_ said mistake as she’s striding back into her new apartment building wanting nothing more than a relaxing bath to ease her tired muscles.

Except she’d left her key inside her apartment that morning in her rush to be on time, along with her phone. It’s a habit she wishes she could break, but she’s usually always on the move and always, _always_ forgetting something and it’s the reason why her spare key has been entrusted to her sister, who she knows won’t be out of work to be able to bring it over for at least another hour.

She’d been hoping to sweet talk security into letting her into her place, but when she punches in the code for the front door and steps inside, she finds the desk empty and groans. Then she remembers Cat’s words from the other night about knocking on her door and wonders if she could maybe get away with hanging out there until Alex can come over.

It’s a thin excuse for wanting to see Cat again, but Kara will take it, because she hasn’t caught so much as a single glimpse of her since the gallery opening, and she finds herself almost _missing_ the easy rapport the two of them had managed to establish in such a short space of time.

But when she knocks on the door to the apartment opposite her own, it’s not Cat who answers, and Kara supposes that she shouldn’t have expected the CEO of CatCo to be home before six o’clock on a weeknight.

“Can I help you?” The brunette woman that answers the door is frowning at her in confusion, and Kara’s wondering if she should just excuse herself and wander over to James’ to hang out there for a while when she sees Carter appear over the woman’s shoulder.

“Kara?” He asks, bounding over to them and smiling when he sees that it is, indeed, her. “What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, managed to lock myself out of my apartment,” she tells him, more than a little sheepishly, because she’s twenty-five years old and she should have probably outgrown her forgetfulness a long time ago. “Without my phone, and I was wondering if maybe I could borrow yours to call my sister? She has my spare key.” She isn’t sure whether she should be directing the question at Carter or, Kara assumes, the nanny, who’s still looking at her curiously.

“Yeah, that’s okay.” Carter is the one who answers, and Kara almost wishes that she had her camera with her, to capture the look of shock on the nanny’s face. “You can come and wait in here til she gets here too, if you want.”

“Carter,” the nanny begins, sounding uncertain as Kara hovers in the doorway, “I don’t think your mother would like - ”

“It’s okay, Ella,” Carter interrupts with a small shake of his head. “Kara lives across the hall and she’s really cool. My mom likes her.” Kara’s lips twitch at that admission – and the look it inspires in the nanny. “But you can call her to check, if you like.”

“If you’re sure it’s alright…” Ella trails off, looking uncertain, but Carter nods enthusiastically and she finally relents, stepping aside and waving Kara inside.

“I’m sorry about this,” she tells them both, kicking off her shoes so she doesn’t accidentally trail dirt into Cat’s home. “It’s always happening, I should really keep my keys on a chain around my neck or something.”

“Happens to the best of us,” Ella offers with a small smile, before she’s extending a hand towards Kara. “I’m Ella, by the way. Carter’s nanny.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” she murmurs as she shakes the woman’s hand before smiling gratefully at Carter when he hands her a phone. “Thanks, kid. Won’t be a minute.” She steps back into the entryway as she dials her sister’s number before pressing the phone to her ear and willing Alex to answer.

_“Hello?”_ She picks up on the fourth ring, sounding confused by the unknown number, and Kara breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Alex, it’s me,” Kara replies, and she hears her sister groan in reply.

_“Did you forget your keys again, Kara?”_ Kara hears the exasperated sigh clearly as she confirms that yes, indeed she has, and rolls her eyes. _“Seriously? Okay, I get off work in an hour and I can come straight over, unless you’re waiting somewhere in the meantime?”_

“Uh, I’m actually at Cat’s place.”

_“Cat she’s-so-hot-and-I-can’t-stop-talking-about-her Grant’s place?”_

“Oh my god,” Kara groans, wishing that her sister hadn’t been at the gallery opening to see her with Cat and tease her about it, and doubly wishing that she hadn’t admitted the crush that was rapidly developing because it had just made Alex even more insufferable than usual. “I am not _that_ bad.”

_“Yes_ ,” Alex replies dryly, _“you are. You’ve got it bad, and you barely even know the woman. And now you’re in her apartment?”_

“It’s not like she’s _here_.” Kara glances over her shoulder to check that Carter isn’t somewhere nearby, listening in.

_“Bet you want her to be.”_ She can imagine perfectly the smirk that will be on Alex’s face, and rolls her eyes again.

“Oh, shut up. Can you bring the key or not?”

_“Want me to wait until she gets home so you can spend some time with your new girlfriend?”_

“I hate you.” Alex’s gleeful laughter rings in her ears, and she heaves out a long-suffering sigh.

_“Hey, I’m just trying to help you out.”_

“ _You_ think I should stay far away from her,” she points out, echoing Alex’s words from the day that Kara had moved in, when she’d noticed the look on her sisters face when she’d walked in to find her and Cat talking.

_“Since when do you ever listen to me when it comes to your dating life?”_ Alex asks, disbelief colouring her voice, and Kara supposes she has a point. _“I’ll be over as soon as I can.”_

“Thank you.” She hangs up on her sister before trudging further into Cat’s apartment, finding Carter working quietly at the kitchen counter, sheets of paper spread out all around him. “Thanks, Carter,” she says as she sets the phone on the counter beside him and squints down at his homework. “Algebra?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t envy you,” she tells him as she leans her hip against the counter. “I was never any good at math. I always used to doodle drawings inside the margins of my books instead of paying attention to the teacher. I still think it’s a miracle that I managed to pass.”

“I like math,” Carter tells her quietly, head bent as he scribbles down another answer. “Do you want a drink?” He asks when he next raises his head, but Kara shakes her head. “Some paper to draw on? I don’t want you to get bored. But I’m nearly done.”

“Paper would be awesome.” He pushes a blank sheet towards her before patting the stool beside his own, and Kara hops up onto it and steals one of his pencils, making him smile. She draws a quick sketch of him, working away whilst she waits for him to finish, and pushes it over to him when he’s done, pencil clattering onto the marble countertop. He looks down at it with wide, adoring eyes, like it’s the most precious things he’s ever been given.

“Can we start our lessons soon?” He asks as he traces a finger along the outline of the sketch, and Kara shrugs.

“Sure, if we clear it with your Mom first. And I can teach you some drawing if you finish your homework before my sister gets here.”

“I am finished,” he tells her proudly, and Kara smiles. “But do you want to see your painting first? It came yesterday, we hung it up already.”

“You’re the one who painted that?” Ella had been pottering around behind them, preparing food presumably for Carter’s dinner, but she pauses at his words, an impressed note to her voice. “It’s really good.”

“Oh, thank you,” she says, shooting her a warm smile over her shoulder before turning back to Carter. “And I’d love to see it.” He grins before hopping off his stool, and Kara follows him further into the apartment – it hangs on the wall halfway down a hallway, directly opposite a door that has Carter’s name written in colourful letters across it. “You wanted it right outside your room?”

“Yeah! So it’s the first thing I see in the morning.”

“I could’ve painted you something brighter,” Kara replies, touched, but Carter shakes his head.

“No, I like this one. It’s pretty, but not in the conventional way.” He sounds so grown up, though Kara doesn’t think he’s any older than thirteen, and it makes her smile softly down at the top of his head. “Is it a real place?”

“Uh, yeah.” She bites her lip and looks away from his inquisitive gaze, focuses her eyes on the painting and can almost breathe in the cool mountain air. “When I was a kid, my parents used to take me out into the hills every year, to get away from the city for a few days. We’d stay in this cosy little log cabin and this was the view from my bedroom window.”

She’d drawn before she lost her parents, but after they were gone, it had become a way to preserve her memories of them lest she forget a single moment; she knows that many of her best pieces are those like this one, haunting memories from the life she’d used to have.

“I’m sorry,” Carter tells her in a quiet voice, and when Kara’s eyes dart down to look at his she sees him gazing up at her with guilty eyes. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“No, no, you didn’t.” She reaches out to lay a tentative hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently when he doesn’t shy away from the touch. “I just… I lost my parents a long time ago. My art started out as a way to remember them, and the things that we shared.”

“I’m sorry about your parents.”

“Thanks, kid. It’s okay though, I ended up with an awesome foster family. And a sister that puts up with me losing my keys every five seconds.” Carter’s expression lightens at Kara’s joke, and she uses her hold on his shoulder to turn him gently back towards the kitchen. “Now come on, let’s find some paper and see what you can do.”

He practically drags her back to the kitchen and she laughs, delighted as he finds some more paper and settles back on the counter, carefully stacking up his homework before pushing it to one side. She shows him some of the basic things she’d learned in her first art lessons, and is pleasantly surprised to find that he’s pretty good, and picks things up incredibly quickly, and it makes her eager to find out what he can do with a brush and a selection of paints.

His enthusiasm makes her smile, because Kara’s never really gotten to share her own before, and it’s a nice change. Her family and her friends are always complimentary about her work, but the rare occasions she’s tried to teach some of them they’d quickly grown bored, but Carter looks up at her with a keen expression on his face, listening to her every word with rapt attention, and he’s by far the best student she’s ever had.

She’s sure her own disappointment mirrors his own when there’s a soft knock on the door sometime later, Alex appearing with her spare key and a large pizza and cutting their conversation short.

“Don’t worry, kid,” she tells him as she’s gathering up her boots, Alex already having disappeared into Kara’s apartment, though she leaves the door open behind her, and Kara has no doubt in her mind that she’s probably listening in to their conversation. “We’ll pick up where we left off next time. Ask your Mom about those lessons, okay? And I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye, Kara.” She’s still smiling as she hears the door click behind her before she’s stepping through her own, pushing it shut with her foot and dropping her shoes down beside it.

“Why do you look so happy?” Alex asks her, already halfway through her first slice of pizza, sprawled out on Kara’s couch and making herself completely at home. “I thought you said Cat wasn’t home.”

“She wasn’t,” Kara tells her as she shoves Alex’s feet from her spot on the couch, folding herself down and reaching for her own slice. “But her son’s really sweet. And he appreciates my art lessons, unlike _some_ people.” She glares at Alex, who rolls her eyes – she’d lasted five seconds before she’d told Kara she was bored, and a part of her hasn’t ever quite managed to forgive her sister for it.

“What a convenient excuse to spend more time in her apartment.” Alex eyes her meaningfully, and Kara wonders if it’s too soon to kick her out.

“An added bonus,” Kara admits, and Alex grins. “What?”

“Nothing. I guess I just haven’t seen you this in to someone for a while.” Kara inclines her head, because that is true – her last breakup had been messy and horrible and she hasn’t even thought about dating anyone else in the six months since. “Are you gonna ask her out?”

“I don’t know,” Kara shrugs, because she hasn’t _gotten_ that far yet. Because yeah, Cat is gorgeous and flirting with her is fun, but that’s a whole different ballgame to actually asking her on a date. “I don’t even know if she’s interested in me like that.”

“Oh, please, with the way she was looking at you at the gallery opening? She is so interested. And you’re interested in her…”

“We only _just_ met,” Kara points out, finishing off her slice of pizza and reaching for her second. “I want to get to know her a little better first. And can we talk about something other than Cat for the rest of tonight? Your investment in my love life worries me.”

“I’m invested because I have to live vicariously through you, little sister.” Kara rolls her eyes. “But fine, Cat Grant is off-limits. You wanna watch some TV while I’m here?”

They spend the evening catching up on some of their old shows, and it’s nice, to have Alex back at her side once more. It had been hard, being away from her for so many months when, ever since Kara had come to live with the Danvers’, they’d rarely been apart, and she’s elated that she gets to have her sister close by once again.

It’s late by the time Alex excuses herself with a yawn, and Kara heads straight for her bedroom to change into the shorts and tank she usually sleeps in. She’s in the kitchen reaching for a bottle of water when she hears a knock on the door, and wanders to open it without thinking to cover herself, assuming that it’s her sister coming back because she’s forgotten something.

She _doesn’t_ expect to open the door to find Cat Grant looking back at her, eyes widening slightly when they take in what Kara’s wearing, gaze lingering at her legs, left exposed by the tiny shorts that sit high on her thighs.

“Miss Grant.” Surprise colours her voice, and the sound of it snaps Cat’s gaze from her thighs and up to meet Kara’s eyes. “Is everything okay?” Cat is wearing yoga pants a thin shirt, and she looks every bit as wonderful dressed down as Kara had thought she would.

“Everything’s fine,” she tells her, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe and looking every inch like she belongs there. “Carter was just telling me all about your unexpected visit.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” Cat doesn’t _look_ mad, but Kara feels the need to apologise anyway. “I hope I wasn’t overstepping, I - ”

“Nonsense, Kiera,” Cat cuts her off, tilting her head to one side and studying her closely. Kara feels like she’s under a microscope, feels her skin itch under the intensity of her gaze. “It’s alright. Carter had a lovely time.”

“I did, too,” she answers honestly, and Cat’s soft smile makes her stomach flip and god, Kara is definitely screwed.

“Glad to hear it, because he’s been talking my ear off about art lessons all night.” She gives a wry shake of her head, and Kara grins. “And you’re welcome to start them whenever you like. I’m usually not home from work until late, but I’ve spoken to Ella and you’re free to sit with him for an hour or two one night after he’s finished all his schoolwork. If you’d still like to, of course.”

“Nothing would make me happier. It’s fun to find someone as passionate as I am. We can start tomorrow, if that works for you?”

“That’s fine.” Kara’s smile is warm and Cat’s answering one makes her heart quicken in her chest. “Carter will be delighted.”

“Tomorrow it is, then.” Cat is still watching her with a heavy gaze, and Kara wants to sink into it and never let go. “What time do you usually get home?”

“Why? Trying to avoid me?”

“Quite the opposite.” Cat’s eyes turn interested, Kara watching her throat bob as she swallows. “Carter’s not the only one I like spending time with.” Cat’s smile turns pleased, and Kara dares to hope that she’s just as affected by this as she is. “Maybe I’ll even manage to get a paintbrush in your hand.”

“I doubt that,” Cat murmurs, but Kara’s always liked a challenge. “I always try to be home by eight. It’s not always possible, but…” She trails off with a shrug, and Kara nods.

“Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Maybe,” Cat agrees, her smile radiant. “Goodnight, Kiera.”

“Goodnight, Miss Grant.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of quiet laughter that echoes out into the hall as Cat presses open her front door goes a little way into easing the migraine that’s been steadily building throughout the day. It had been a hellish one, her entire writing staff deciding to become incompetent fools just three days before their latest issue went to print, and Cat should have probably stayed behind to catch up on some more work but she couldn’t stand the thought of spending another hour in the glass walls of her office, needed her son’s hugs to make things even just a little better.

She’d almost forgotten that Kara would be there, but she wanders further down the hall after kicking off her heels and shrugging out of her jacket to find Carter perched on the edge of one of the stools from the breakfast bar at the kitchen in the centre of their living room, an easel set up in-front of him.

There’s a white sheet spread across the floor to protect Cat’s rug, splattered with dots of paint – as she stands and watches, a spattering of red paint drips from the end of the paintbrush Carter waves in his hand as he says something to Kara, who’s sitting on a stool beside him and listening with a warm smile.

“Good evening, Miss Grant.” Ella is the first of the three to notice her, curled up reading a book on Cat’s couch, and both Kara and Carter jump at the sound of her voice, whirling around on their stools to glance at her in surprise.

“Good evening, Ella.” Cat drops her bag onto the countertop before wandering into the living room, eyeing the floor warily so she doesn’t step in any patches of wet paint. “Carter, Kiera. This is… new.” She nods towards the easel, and Kara’s cheeks flush slightly.

“Sorry, Miss Grant, but Carter wanted to get started right away and I didn’t think you’d want him in my studio so I thought I’d - ”

“Stop, Kiera,” Cat cuts off her nervous rambling and hoping the fact that she thinks it’s adorable doesn’t show on her face. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Though perhaps,” she adds as she eyes the white sheet warily, wondering if it’s thick enough to stop any paint drops from seeping through to the floor beneath. “If this becomes a regular thing you should work at your place. Or we could convert one of the guest rooms into a studio for Carter.”

It won’t take much effort, and from the way Carter’s face lights up as he looks at her hopefully, it’ll be worth it to see his happiness.

“What are you painting?” She asks as she comes to a stop behind them, dipping her head down to press a kiss against the top of Carter’s head.

“Just shapes until I get used to it.” The canvas is brilliantly white, streaked with flashes of colour. There’s paint over the back of Carter’s hand and under his fingernails, and he even has a smudge smeared across his cheek that Cat itches to rub away.

“He’s picking things up really quickly,” Kara reports, bouncing her heels lightly on the footrest of the stool, her own hands dusted with charcoal and flecked with paint. “He’ll be a pro in no time.” Carter flushes at the praise as he leans forward to swipe his brush against the canvas once more, Cat watching him with a soft smile, his eyes alight with a warm glow.

“Do you need anything else from me, Miss Grant?” Ella asks as she folds the page of her book down before sliding it into her bag, and Cat shakes her head.

“No, thank you Ella. I’ll see you tomorrow.”                                                               

“Dinner’s in the fridge,” she tells her as she rises fluidly to her feet and heads for the door. “I made enough for three, just in-case.” She shoots Kara a meaningful glance, and Cat rolls her eyes. “Goodnight, Carter!”

“Bye, Ella!” It had taken Cat months and months to find a nanny that Carter got along with and was comfortable around, one that accepted that he was nervous and shy and quiet and reserved, and Ella’s been a godsend over the past few years of both of their lives.

“Kiera, would you like to stay for dinner?” She figures there’s no harm in asking considering she’s already here, and Cat wouldn’t mind spending a little more time with the younger woman. She’d had fun, at the gallery opening – more fun than she can remember having in a long, long while. Kara’s easy smiles and bright eyes have haunted her ever since, her flirtatious words ringing in Cat’s ears, and she shouldn’t still be thinking about her, because it’s impossible, a chance for the two of them to ever have anything, but Cat enjoys the company and the way Kara makes her feel.

“Oh, uh, I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience…”  She shifts a little awkwardly in her seat, nervous look on her face, a world away from the confidence she’d been awash in at the gallery – Cat finds that she likes both sides of her just the same.

“Nonsense,” Cat tells her with a wave of her hand. “It’s fine. Unless you already have plans, of course.”

“Uh, my dinner plans usually involve a large pizza or some Chinese food, so.” Kara shrugs as Cat’s nose wrinkles in distaste – she doesn’t remember the last time she ate any takeout herself.

“Then it’s settled, you’re staying.” Carter beams at Cat’s words, practically buzzing with excitement as he sets his paintbrush down gently. “I’ll just go and slip into something a little more comfortable. Carter can show you where the bathroom is, if he hasn’t already, so you can wash up.” She nods towards their dirtied hands before padding down the hall to her bedroom, slipping out of her dress and into her favourite pair of sweatpants, the material soft and worn and sitting low on her hips. She couples it with a silken blouse before returning to the kitchen, finding Kara gathering up her art supplies carefully and setting them back in the box she’d brought with her, leaving the painting standing on the easel to dry.

Cat slips the lasagne Ella had made earlier into the oven to heat up while she pours herself a glass of wine, turning to call to Kara over the top of counter. “Do you want a glass?” She angles the bottle towards her and she nods, Cat reaching for a second glass out of the cupboard.

“Thank you,” Kara murmurs when Cat crosses over into the living room to pass it to her, ignoring the way her heart thuds when their fingers brush against one another. “And thank you for dinner.”

“It’s not like I made it,” Cat teases, leaning her hip against the side of the couch as Kara rolls her eyes.

“Maybe not, but you didn’t have to ask to me stay.”

“After listening to your usual diet?” Cat replies with a raised eyebrow, Kara smirking down at her around the rim of her glass as she lifts it to her lips. “It would be a crime not to. And it’s even more of a crime how you can eat nothing but rubbish and yet still look like _that_.” She runs her eyes down Kara’s lithe frame, over strong arms and toned abs, and Kara’s smirk widens. “Not fair.”

“I run,” Kara shrugs, like that’s all it takes to get a figure like that. “And you know, you don’t look so bad yourself.” Kara bites her lip, her eyes flashing with something sinful and dangerous as she takes a small step closer. “I wasn’t lying when I said that you dressed-down was a sight I’d like to see.”

Cat knows she should probably step away, put an end to… whatever it was that could develop between them, the tension that simmers whenever they’re alone with one another, but she likes the way Kara looks at her, like she wants her, and she doesn’t think she could tear herself away if she tried.

“Not disappointed?”

“Never.” Cat’s lips twitch, and she forces herself to take a step backwards as she hears Carter come stomping down the hallway from the direction of his bathroom. “Hey, kid,” Kara murmurs as he comes into view, smile on his face when he sees the two of them. “Manage to get cleaned up okay?”

“Mhm.” Cat wanders back into the kitchen, bending to check on the lasagne before reaching out to grab a few plates, jumping when she straightens up and finds Kara standing beside her.

“Need any help?”

“You can take these into the dining room.” She pushes the plates over to her, and reaches for some cutlery from one the drawers. “Carter can show you where it is.” He appears over Kara’s shoulder to direct her down the hall as Cat bends to pull the lasagne out of the oven, cutting it into neat slices before following in their footsteps and setting it down in the centre of the table along with the dish of roasted vegetables that Ella had also prepared for them.

Kara and Carter are already sitting down, Carter in his usual seat and Kara opposite him, Cat’s wine glass sitting in-front of her place.

“Thank you, Miss Grant,” Kara murmurs as Cat settles into her seat, the both of them watching Carter pile his plate high with food.

“Please,” Cat replies quietly, eyes fixed on her son, “call me Cat. In my home, at least.”

“Okay.” Kara looks pleased, and Cat has to refrain from rolling her eyes. “Cat.” She likes the sound of it just as much as she’d remembered, can feel Kara’s eyes on the side of her face as she says it, and makes sure that she keeps her expression carefully neutral.

They’re quiet while they eat, both Carter and Kara demolishing almost twice the amount of food that Cat can manage herself, and when Kara tries to help her clear away the dishes when they’re finished, Cat waves her away.

“You’re the guest, Kiera, you don’t need to do that.” She doesn’t protest as Kara helps her carry the plates back out into the kitchen, though she does bat her hands away as soon as she’s set them down the counter.

“I want to help,” she shrugs, but Cat just shoos her out of the way as she starts to fill up the sink. “And if I’m calling you Cat, then you have to call me Kara. I know you know my real name.” Cat’s lips twitch slightly in annoyance, deliberately not looking at the other woman as she watches the suds form in the water in-front of her. “What I don’t know is why you keep calling me Kiera.”

“Habit,” Cat tries to brush her off, still not looking her way despite feeling Kara’s curious eyes on her face. “From work.” She can practically feel Kara frown, and rolls her eyes. “I don’t call anyone by the right name. It reminds them that they’re… replaceable. Keeps a level of distance.”

“Are you trying to keep your distance from me?” Kara is too close, close enough for Cat to feel the heat radiating from her body, leaning her hip against the counter and her body towards Cat, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“No,” Cat lies, because that’s exactly why – she’s terrified of letting this mysterious, enthralling woman too close, this woman who’s already won over her son and is already creeping slowly into Cat’s life and making it hard for her to remember all of her reasons for being perpetually single ever since divorcing her husband. “I told you, force of habit.”

“One you’ll try to break?” Kara prompts, and Cat rolls her eyes skyward once more.

“I make no promises,” she tells her, and sees Kara pout out of the corner of her eye. “Kara,” she adds, watching the pout turn into a radiant smile that makes her stomach lurch and god, Cat was right the other night – she is so very, very screwed.

“Mom, Kara,” Carter’s voice calls out from behind them, and Cat turns to glance at him over her shoulder, to where he’s peering at them over the back of the couch. “Can we play a game before Kara leaves?”

“If she wants to,” Cat offers, glancing at Kara, who nods a little shyly. “Why don’t you go and help him pick something out?” She disappears to let Cat finish washing up in peace, and when she’s finished, draining the sink and drying her hands on a towel, she finds Carter pressed into Kara’s side on the couch, Settlers of Catan sitting on the coffee table between them.

“Kara’s never played before,” Carter tells her cheerfully, reaching out to take the lid off the box as Cat folds herself down onto the couch, “so I said we could be on a team. Maybe this time I’ll finally beat you.”

“I doubt that,” Cat replies smugly, and Carter rolls his eyes playfully, used to being beaten each and every time they play this game, and more than used to Cat’s competitiveness.

She wins, of course, much to Carter’s chagrin. Kara even pouts at the loss, and that makes Cat’s smile widen because she looks adorable.

“I think it’s bedtime for you, Carter,” Cat tells him when she sees him trying to hide a yawn as they’re clearing the game away, glancing at her watch to see that it’s already well past the hour she’d usually shoo him to his room.

He agrees reluctantly, bidding Kara goodnight before Cat guides him into his room, pressing a kiss to the top of his head before making her way back to the living room to where Kara still sits on the couch, finishing the last dregs of her second glass of wine.

She glances at the easel still standing proudly in the centre of the room, the paint now long-dry, and jumps when she feels Kara move to stand behind her.

“Want to try it for yourself?” She asks, breath stirring the hair at the back of Cat’s neck and making her shiver.

“No,” Cat shakes her head, “because I know for a fact that I’d be awful at it. I can’t even draw.”

“You never know until you try.” Kara’s voice is quiet by her ear, and Cat bites at her bottom lip and tries to keep her breathing steady. “Come on, one try. And if you hate it, I’ll never ask again.”

“Fine,” Cat relents with a roll of her eyes, and there’s a bounce in Kara’s step as she makes her way over to her box of supplies and roots around until she finds a palette and a paintbrush, the white sheet still laid out on the floor from before.

Cat drags over a stool from the kitchen and settles herself in-front of the canvas, taking the brush gingerly from Kara and testing its weight between her fingers.

“It’s not a pen,” Kara says with a small huff of laughter as she sets the palette down at Cat’s side, paint already glistening in one of the wells, “so don’t hold it like one.”

“Show me,” Cat murmurs, because if she’s doing this she may as well get something out of it, and feeling Kara’s hands on her is a definite advantage. She does _not_ expect her to drag a stool over behind Cat and perch on the very edge of it, reaching around Cat’s body to curl her hand over the one holding the brush, gently positioning her fingers so that she’s holding it correctly.

“Like that,” Kara breathes, voice at Cat’s ear, and Cat’s mouth goes dry as Kara presses closer, hips against her ass and thighs bracketing Cat’s own, breasts against her back and Cat can feel the heat of her skin through the thin material of both of their shirts.

It’s electrifying, being so close, and Cat thinks that this was a really, really bad idea because she’s drowning in the scent of Kara’s perfume, her skin feeling like it’s burning beneath the light touch of Kara’s fingers.

She feels cold when Kara lifts her hand away to let Cat dip the brush in the paint and draw a single line on the canvas, fingers trembling, affected by the ghost of Kara’s touch and the heat of her breath against the bare skin of her shoulder.

“What am I supposed to be drawing?” She asks as she lifts the brush away, the red paint bright against the white, stark and beautiful, and Cat wishes for even just a modicum of the talent that Kara possesses, wonders what it would be like to get her thoughts and memories down on canvas instead of as words on a page.

“What do you want to draw?” Kara’s voice is quiet, and Cat hears her breath catch as she leans back a little into her touch, smirks at the thought that Kara is just as affected by this as she is.

And she doesn’t know why – because Kara is half her age, drop-dead gorgeous and Cat doesn’t know what she could possibly offer her, why she’d be attracted to her when she could probably have anyone in National City.

But she’s not going to complain, not when she feels desire thrumming through her veins, not when she’s got someone who looks like Kara Danvers pressed so tightly against her back that there’s barely an inch between them.

And oh, it would be so easy for her to turn her head, tangle the hand that isn’t holding the brush in wavy blonde hair and guide Kara’s lips to her own, and she thinks that Kara would kiss her back, thinks it would be hungry and messy, would make her toes curl and make her want to turn in Kara’s arms and push her down onto the couch and climb into her lap.

But she doesn’t dare, because Kara has already proven herself to be dangerous – she’s already in Cat’s head and Cat doesn’t want her to settle in her heart, too, because it’s cold and bitter and Kara deserves better than anything Cat would ever be able to offer her.

The attention is nice, the flirting and the touching even more so, but Cat doesn’t dare take it further because there’s a part of her that’s terrified by the affect that Kara has already had on her, doesn’t dare take things further in-case she falls, and falls hard, because she thinks it would be so very easy for someone like Kara to ruin her completely.

“Anything,” Cat replies quietly, because she can’t draw with a pencil, let alone a paintbrush, and Kara’s chuckle is warm against her cheek.

“Well, start with a circle. That’s pretty easy.” It’s not, as it turns out, and Kara chuckles again against her cheek. There’s no reason for her to still be sitting so close, but she doesn’t move away, and Cat doesn’t ask her to.

And if her fingers slip a little on the brush so that she’s not holding it correctly anymore then, well, she’ll just blame it on her inexperience and not anything else, ignores the way her heart leaps when Kara’s hand curls once more over the back of her hand to correct her.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Kara asks when it happens for the third time, the canvas littered with a few tiny circles amongst the larger, more complicated shapes that Carter had painted earlier, her voice laced with amusement.

“No,” Cat scoffs, even though maybe she _had_ , and she can practically _feel_ Kara’s grin against her skin. “I told you I wouldn’t be any good at this.”

“I’ve seen worse.”

“Liar.” Kara laughs, the sound quiet and lovely in Cat’s ear. “Am I allowed to stop yet?” She thinks she could watch someone with Kara’s talent paint for hours, but she finds the act of doing it herself boring because of its simplicity.

“Didn’t take you for a quitter,” Kara teases, though she shifts so that she’s no longer at Cat’s back, legs of the stool scraping along the wooden floor, and Cat lets out a breath that she hadn’t even realised she’d been holding. Her heart beats loud in her ears, throat feeling tight, still able to feel the imprint of Kara’s fingers against her wrist.

“Not quitting,” Cat defends, as she sets the brush down delicately for Kara to pack away, rising fluidly to her feet and stretching her arms above her head. “Just calling it a night.”

“That mean I can get you to do this again sometime?” Kara’s eyes are a shade darker than normal, her breathing laboured, and Cat wonders, if she presses her fingers against her wrist, if her pulse will be racing as quickly as Cat’s is.

“That depends.” Kara’s gaze turns interested, and Cat smiles sweetly as she meets her eyes. “Are you asking because you’re genuinely interested in getting me to paint, or just so you can get your hands on me again?”

“If I answer both, will you kick me out?” There’s a quiet confidence in her blue, blue eyes, like she’s fully aware of the affect that she has on Cat though she’s still wary of pushing things too far.

“I’m kicking you out anyway,” Cat tells her, avoiding the question and making Kara grin. “ _Some_ of us have to get up at the crack at dawn to run a company because they can’t make their own hours.”

“Shouldn’t you be able to work whenever you want, considering you own the place?”

“You would think,” Cat replies with a delicate sigh. “But seeing as I work with a bunch of incompetent idiots that would probably burn the place down if I wasn’t there to supervise them, then sadly not.”

“So basically what you’re saying is that you’re a control freak?” Kara asks, her eyes sparkling as she bends to pack the paintbrush and palette back into her box.

“ _I_ would say perfectionist,” Cat counters as Kara straightens up, “though most of my employees would probably prefer the term control freak, yes. I like to be in charge.” She looks at Kara when she says that, her voice a note lower than usual, and she smirks when she sees the way her eyes widen slightly in response to the words, throat working as she swallows thickly, and Cat wets her lips in response.

“Yeah? Just at work or everywhere else, too?” Cat’s sure her smirk is wicked, and Kara swallows again at the sight of it, cheeks quickly growing flushed.

“I’ll help you carry your things back over to your apartment,” Cat deftly changes the subject before things take a turn towards dangerous and she forgets all of her reasons for why she and Kara would be an awful idea.

Kara just nods, and Cat helps her fold the sheet, careful not to get any paint on her clothes – Kara isn’t so lucky, and ends up with a smudge of black on her sleeve, that she somehow manages to transfer to the side of her neck.

“I’ll get you a cloth,” Cat murmurs when she notices Kara rubbing at the skin with the back of her hand, pacing into the kitchen and grabbing a fresh towel, wetting it with warm water.

“Oh, it’s okay, Miss Grant – Cat,” she hastily correct when Cat’s eyes narrow into a glare. “I’m used to it.”

“Still.” Cat steps close, ignores the way it makes her heart beat faster to feel the heat of Kara’s body radiating against her, turning her head by poking her jaw with her index finger and wiping the skin of her neck gently clean.

Kara’s breath is shaky by the time Cat pulls the cloth away, and Cat wonders if her eyes are as dark as Kara’s are, when they meet for a brief second before Cat steps back and walks away.

She tells herself she’s stupid, for being so easily affected by another person – Cat doesn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this, almost dizzy from being surrounded by the scent of Kara’s perfume and shampoo, from the brush of gentle fingertips against her skin, the heat of thighs pressing against her own.

And Kara sets her off-kilter and off-balance so effortlessly, like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Makes her feel like she’s a teenager, with the way her heart leaps in her chest every time she shoots Cat one of those soft, secret smiles, her eyes crinkling in the corners and god, she should definitely be keeping Kara at arm’s length before she does something stupid like kiss those inviting lips that she sometimes finds it hard to look away from, but she doesn’t think she’ll even be able to try.

“If you’re comfortable,” Cat murmurs as she carefully gathers up the easel and steadies the canvas on it with her free hand, following Kara as she lifts her box of supplies and trudges the short path back to her own apartment, “Carter can work in your studio next time.”

It’s easier than Kara having to carry everything backwards and forwards, and she thinks there’s probably more things for him to play with over here, knows that Kara will be more comfortable within these four walls than she will ever be at Cat’s apartment.

It has the added bonus of meaning that Cat won’t come home from work again to find Kara making her son’s day in her own living room, won’t be tempted to ask her to stay for dinner and end up in another compromising position where it would be oh, so easy for her resolve to crack.

“Okay,” Kara shrugs as she directs Cat into said studio, setting the box down before taking the easel from her gently and placing it back in the centre of the room, taking off the canvas and resting it against one of the walls. “If you’re sure.”

“It’s fine. Then you can work at the same time.” There’s a half-finished painting on one of the other easels, and one with a barely-there outline on the other – both are beautiful, and Cat wonders what it would be like to sit in the armchair in the corner and watch Kara work, watch her work come alive before her very eyes.

She wonders what Kara looks like when she paints, whether she would wear the faded jeans and thin shirt she has on now, or something else, if there’s a section of her closet reserved for paint-spattered clothes that she pulls on whenever she starts something new.

She wonders what look would be on her face – whether it would be quiet concentration, perhaps a tiny frown forming between her brows, tongue poking between her lips, fierce concentration in her gaze, or if there would only be a look of complete bliss – as she spent hours and hours crafting something so beautiful that it was hard to tear your gaze away.

“What are you thinking about?” Kara asks, quietly breaking Cat out of her thoughts, wandering over to stand a few steps in-front of where Cat hovers in the doorway.

“Just wondering what you look like whilst you’re working,” she answers honestly, seeing little reason to lie, wondering if she should have when she sees Kara’s eyes soften.

“Maybe one day you can come and find out. It’d probably be terribly boring for you, though.”

“I doubt it,” Cat murmurs, and Kara’s gaze is heavy as it rests on her face, crawls over her skin like a tangible pressure, and Cat doesn’t know how she’s supposed to look away. “I should probably be getting to bed,” she says then, because the room is starting to feel awfully warm and Cat needs to put some distance between them as soon as she possibly can.

“True. Your media empire won’t run itself, after all,” Kara teases, and Cat rolls her eyes. “Thank you for tonight.”

“Thank _you_ for being so good with my son. Though I feel like it bears mentioning…” She trails off, voice turning more serious than it has been all night, and Kara’s gaze sharpens at the change. “He’s already come to look up to you, despite not knowing you for very long. He doesn’t trust or interact with people easily, I’ve already told you that.” Kara nods, thoughtfully, waiting for Cat’s point. “And if you do anything to hurt him…” She trails off, lets the threat linger in the air, and watches the understanding dawning on Kara’s face.

“I won’t,” she promises, voice steady and gaze earnest. “I promise. Carter’s a great kid, and I’d never do anything to hurt him in any way. You have my word.”

“Thank you,” Cat replies quietly, more grateful than she’ll ever be able to let Kara know – she’s already seen a noticeable change in her son, seen him come out of his shell more than ever before over the past few days. “Goodnight, Kara.”

She smiles at the use of her name, repeats the sentiment back to her before Cat turns to leave, traipsing back into her own apartment and locking the door behind her. Her mind is filled with thoughts of Kara as she makes her way into her bedroom, and she decides that Kara may just be the most dangerous person that Cat has ever met.

And she already can’t wait to see her again.


	4. Chapter 4

Kara lets out a quiet whistle as she gazes up at the CatCo building, craning her neck to be able to see up to the top, and she wonders which one of the many offices she can barely make out above her belong to the woman herself.

She hasn’t seen much of Cat, since their impromptu painting session. And maybe Kara should have kept her hands to herself, but it had been too easy, to slide behind Cat and listen to the way her breath hitched at the contact, too dizzying to be pressed so close, to brush her fingers over the back of Cat’s hand to guide her movements.

She’s been thinking about it a lot since.

Mostly at night in the dark, staring up at her ceiling and wondering what the inside of Cat’s bedroom looked like, wondering what she wore to bed, how much smooth skin would be on display and remembering the feeling of it beneath her fingertips.

God.

It’s probably a good thing that she’s only seen glimpses of Cat since, her knock light on Kara’s door when she comes by to collect Carter on those nights where he settles beside her in her studio with the set of brushes and paints that Kara had designated as his own and told him to look after carefully.

She hasn’t been invited over for dinner again, and sometimes Kara wonders if she’d done something wrong. But she knows she hadn’t been imagining Cat’s reaction to her touch, knows that there was at least a small part of Cat that felt something for her, and Kara is content to sit back and wait for Cat to waltz back into her life, doesn’t want to push things too fast when she’s already made it more than clear that she’s interested.

There’s a spring in her step as she wanders into the CatCo lobby, balancing the crumpled paper bag she’d picked up from the coffee shop slash bar down the street along with two cappuccinos on her arm as she presses the button for the fortieth floor, as per James’ instructions. 

He was best friends with her cousin, and she’d first met him almost four years ago and they’ve been fast friends ever since. The fact that she’d ended up in the same city where he’d not long ago gotten a new job as the art director for a bigshot company was a happy coincidence, and, along with Alex’s return to her life, had made her move a lot easier.

She pulls up the instructions James had sent her to find his office, but she realises she doesn’t need them as she steps around the corner hiding the elevators and into the bullpen, lips pulling into a smile when she sees him behind a glass wall directly in-front of her.

Kara doesn’t even need to look to see whose office it is, because really, who else but Cat Grant would have an office made of glass, situated in the centre of the bullpen so she could both spy on and intimidate her employees at exactly the same time?

Kara wouldn’t have expected anything less, and it makes her smile.

Most of the occupants of the desks around her look busy, phones pressed to their ears or frantically typing away, and Kara crosses hesitantly over towards Cat’s office, pausing at the desk of a guy who looks about her age, looking bored as he stares at the computer screen in-front of him.

“Excuse me?” She asks softly, though her voice still makes him jump – he glances from the screen and up at her, eyes widening as he takes her in, spine immediately straightening and a smile crossing his face. “Do you know how long they’ll be in there?” She inclines her head towards Cat’s office, and the guy turns and gives it a dubious look before looking back at Kara.

“Honestly? It’s hard to say. The length of Miss Grant’s meetings fluctuate depending on her mood.”

“And she’s in a terrible one this morning,” a brunette sat at the desk opposite murmurs under her breath, and Kara’s lips twitch into a smile.

“So, it could be a while,” the guy offers with a shrug. “Do you have an appointment with her?”

“With Cat?” His eyes widen comically at the use of her first name. “No. I was supposed to bring James lunch.” She glances into the office to see Cat standing behind her desk, hands settled firmly on her lips and Kara can hear her raised voice through the glass and god, that probably shouldn’t be so attractive but Cat looks _hot_ when she’s angry.

“Oh.” The guy looks kind of disappointed as he says the word, and Kara has no idea why. “Are you the fiancée?”

“No,” Kara chuckles, endlessly amused whenever someone asks her that question – she and James have always been close, and at one point in the beginning, she’d had a tiny crush on him, but it had withered and died around about the same time she’d kissed her first woman. “That would be Lucy.” Her best friend still lives in Metropolis, though it wouldn’t be long before she was planning on joining them out here, and Kara’s little circle of friends would be reunited once more. “I’m Kara.” She holds out her hand to the guy, whose eyes light up now that he no longer thinks she’s taken, and Kara wonders how quickly it will be before she has to shoot him down.

“Winn,” he tells her, his hand trembling as he shakes Kara’s. “You can wait here for James, if you like.”

“Thanks.” She leans her hip against the side of his desk and lifts her coffee to her lips, wondering if she’ll have time to drink them both before James and his colleagues are released from Cat’s wrath. She wonders what it says about her, that she’d switch places with him in a heartbeat.

“So, Kara,” Winn starts, attention fully on Kara now, his work long-forgotten as he leans back in his chair to glance up at her. “How come I haven’t seen you around here before?”

“Only just moved,” she tells him, tapping her fingers against the side of the paper cup and grinning when she sees Cat’s gaze land on her over James’ shoulder, her eyes widening almost imperceptibly at the sight of her.

Kara can’t resist giving her a little wave, snickering when Cat’s eyes narrow into a glare before looking away.

“You… do you know Miss Grant?”

“She lives across the hall from me.”

“Wow. I’m sorry.” He looks genuinely apologetic, and Kara wonders just what Cat is like around these parts – she’s now stalking in-front of her desk, hands waving wildly as she continues her rant, practically radiating power, and Kara wonders if she could get drunk on it.

“Why? She’s not so bad. And her kid’s cute.” Winn looks astounded, clearly not having seen any side of his boss other than the stoic, angry woman prowling up and down her office like it’s a goddamn catwalk.

It’s not _fair_ that Cat looks that good, a slit in her skirt that reveals a strip of skin on her thigh, the blouse tight, two buttons undone, and Kara feels a flash of something dark as she wonders if that might be for someone’s benefit.

God, she’s ridiculous.

“If you say so,” Winn mutters under his breath. “What brings you to National City?”

“Family. Why do work here if you hate it so much?”

“I… I never said I hated it.” Kara just levels him with a disbelieving look, and he shrugs. “It pays okay, and putting on your resume that you lasted more than a year with Cat Grant is quite the achievement around these parts.”

The door to Cat’s office opens then, just in time for the entire bullpen to hear her firing someone, and Kara can imagine that Winn’s words are more than true.

“Hey, Kara.” James appears at her shoulder with a warm smile, and Kara uses the arm that isn’t holding onto the food to pull him into a hug, having not seen him for a few days, busy with her latest commission and James busy fulfilling Cat’s latest demands. “Find the place okay?”

“It’s kinda hard to miss,” she replies with a grin as she hands him his coffee, earning a grateful look in response. “Considering it towers over every building within a ten block radius.”

She wonders if Cat had bought the tallest building in the city because she was sick of looking up at people, and would rather look down at them instead – Kara had noticed the balcony leading off her office almost immediately.

She thinks the view from it would be fascinating, would love to get a glimpse and try and commit it to canvas later when she was back in her studio.

“True,” James agrees with an easy smile. “We can head to my office, if you want?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. It was nice to meet you, Winn.” He looks disappointed as they prepare to leave, and Kara wonders if he’d been waiting for an invitation to join them. She’s only taken a single step to follow James when there’s the sound of a door being pulled open, and a name ringing out across the office in a cool, clear voice.

“Kiera.”

Kara turns to find Cat standing in the doorway of her office with her arms folded across her chest, and she arches an eyebrow at the use of that name, having called Cat out on it the latest time they were alone together, but Cat doesn’t rise to the challenge.

“Do you have a minute?” It’s the first time Cat has asked anything of her that wasn’t for Carter, and she’s too stunned to be able to answer for one long moment before she remembers herself, blinking and handing the crumpled paper bag to James.

“Sure. I’ll meet you in a few?” She asks James, ignoring the way his eyes sparkle as he glances deliberately between the two of them – he’s worse than her sister, sometimes, when it comes to teasing her about Cat, and Kara’s just thankful that Cat’s already marching back into her office and doesn’t see the direction of his gaze.

“Have fun,” he says, teasing lilt to his voice, and Kara whacks him on the shoulder hard enough to make him wince before following Cat inside her office and shutting the door quietly behind her. Cat is already settling behind her desk and perching a pair of glasses over her nose, Kara taking a few uncertain steps forward, coming to stand in-front of the desk when Cat makes no move to stop her.

“Can I help you, Miss Grant?”

“Here for a lunch date?” She asks, and Kara is certain that that’s not the reason why Cat asked her in here and merely rolls her eyes instead of answering. “I was going to bring it up when I saw you later, but seeing as you’re here… I realised that we’ve never discussed payment, for Carter’s lessons.”

“Oh.” Kara doesn’t know what she’d expected Cat to say, but it wasn’t that. “Uh, well, I wasn’t expecting anything,” Kara shrugs, watching the surprise bloom across Cat’s face. “It’s enough to just… share what I do with someone else. Someone as enthusiastic as I can be.”

“Nonsense,” Cat murmurs, her stare piercing as she gazes at Kara across the desk, and Kara wishes she’d sat literally _anywhere_ else because she’s had a thing for desks ever since her first girlfriend had pressed Kara against one in their college library and told her to keep quiet as she’d dipped a hand between her legs.

And _now_ Kara is imagining what it would be like to be sat on-top of that desk, thighs spread to accommodate Cat between them, and –

_Christ_ , Kara.

Pull yourself together.

Stop thinking inappropriate things about the hot neighbour.

“It’s fine, really,” Kara replies after clearing her throat, blinking to dispel any lingering images of Cat sweeping her belongings aside in favour of shoving Kara flat against the surface her elbows are currently resting on, chin settled in the palm of her hand. “It’s not like I need the money.”

“No, but still… Carter’s using your supplies.”

“Mostly old ones that I don’t use myself anymore.” All the brushes are worn, the bristles sticking out in every direction, but they work well for a beginner, and Kara’s sure Carter’s going to talk Cat into buying him his own set sooner rather than later.

“And you spend so much time with him…”

“Because I enjoy it.” Her sister is busy at work and James is busy here or with Lucy, their relationship strong despite the distance, and Kara’s too new to have any other friends in the city.

And she likes the solitude, sometimes, because she can spend hours in her studio, when she really gets settled into a piece – once she’d spent almost twenty-four hours in there, until Alex had dragged her out and refused to let her back in until she’d eaten and slept at least a handful of hours – but it’s nice to be able to share that space with someone else, even if a lot of the time is spent in silence, both she and Carter working quietly away.

“And that’s payment enough,” she adds, because Cat’s still looking at her like she can’t quite believe what she’s hearing.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything?” Cat’s tapping her fingers absentmindedly against the desk, and Kara’s about to jokingly answer something about Cat paying her in the form of food when she has an idea.

A potentially really stupid idea but, well, she’s never had very good self-control.

Cat must see the way her eyes light up, because hers narrow as she regards Kara warily, hands reaching out to pluck a handful of M&M’s from the glass that sits on her left.

Kara thinks that that’s an adorable habit, not that she will ever tell Cat that. Not in million years, if she wants to continue breathing – she can’t imagine Cat taking ‘adorable’ as a compliment, especially here in her office, where she reigns supreme.

“Well…” Kara starts, trailing off and biting her lip like she’s not sure whether she wants to finish her sentence. Cat just raises an impatient eyebrow, and Kara decides what the hell. “There is actually something. I have an idea for a new piece, but… I need a model.”

“And you want me to get one for you?” Cat asks, already reaching her hand towards her phone and completely misunderstanding Kara’s interest. “That’s not an issue, just tell me who you’d prefer. Cara Delevingne? Gigi Hadid? Hell, we could probably fly Kate Moss over from - ”

“I meant you, Miss Grant,” Kara cuts her off, amused to watch Cat’s lips form a little ‘O’ of surprise – she wonders how often it is that Cat is shocked in her own office, sitting at that desk. Judging from the way she’s blinking up at Kara slowly, she thinks that this may be one of the first.

“ _Me_?”

“Mhm.” Kara holds Cat’s gaze and refuses to look away, even as she can feel the heat of it sinking in to her, warming her to her very soul and making her heart pound.

“Why on earth would you want that?”

“Why on earth _wouldn’t_ I want to paint National City’s most powerful person, who also happens to be one of the most beautiful?” She watches Cat’s eyes narrow slightly, like she’s trying to figure Kara out, like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Of course, it’s optional.” She feels like that’s important to point out – the last thing she wants is to back Cat into a corner. She fears that that wouldn’t end well for her. “I’m not going to stop teaching Carter if you decline. I’ll find someone else.”

“No.” Cat looks almost surprised as Kara to hear the word, and Kara struggles not to smirk, wondering what a jealous Cat would look like. “I think it would be… interesting, to watch you work.” Her eyes dip briefly to run across Kara’s figure, and she wonders if Cat’s thinking about all the staring she’ll get to do when they’re alone together for several uninterrupted hours.

Kara knows _she_ definitely is.

“Are you sure?” Kara presses, because she doesn’t want Cat to agree if she isn’t, but she only nods, lips pursed.

“Carter is with his father this weekend, if you’d like to do it then.”

“Saturday?” Kara asks, because Alex is working until four and she’d been planning on spending the day inside her studio, anyway. Cat nods, and Kara grins and murmurs, “Until then, Miss Grant,” before backing out of Cat’s office, sure her smile is bright enough to rival the sun.

x-x-x

Kara grins when there’s a light knock on her door at one o’clock on her front door on Saturday afternoon, hurrying over to open it and her grin widening when it reveals Cat standing on the other side.

“I told you to wear something casual,” Kara murmurs when she takes in what Cat’s wearing, the light blue dress sinfully tight, hugging Cat like a second skin.

“I came straight from the office,” Cat shrugs, dropping her bag on Kara’s kitchen counter as she saunters past her on black stilettos. Kara’s barefoot, and it puts them at the same height – Cat looks pleased as she turns on her heel and notices, and Kara has to refrain from rolling her eyes.

“Why were you at the office on a Saturday morning?”

“Because my son isn’t home and I hate having an empty apartment,” Cat murmurs the words nonchalantly, but it makes Kara’s heart ache to think of her, bored and lonely, curled up on her couch with a glass of wine held in one of her hands.

“You didn’t sleep there, did you?”

“No,” Cat huffs with an exaggerated eye roll. “Sleeping on one of my office couches would hardly do wonders for my back.”

“I don’t know, they looked pretty comfortable.” Cat just levels her with a glare, and Kara smiles. “That dress, however…”

“What’s wrong with this dress?” Cat looks offended, drawing her arms across her chest and arching an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” Kara says immediately, unable to stop her gaze lingering at the sharp angle of Cat’s collarbones before she blinks and forces herself to look away. “It’s lovely, _but_ not so lovely for posing in for several hours.”

“I’ll live,” Cat shrugs, and Kara decides it’s probably best not to argue.

“Alright. Come with me, then, if you’re still sure you want to do this.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Kara hums as she leads Cat down to her studio, trailing her hand along the wall as she goes.

“Do you want a drink?” She asks, as she’s walking through the door – there’s a fridge set up in the corner complete with water and beer, and a coffee machine beside it, Kara setting up the room so that she rarely had to leave it.

There’s a mattress on the floor, too, for whenever she’s too tired to be able to crawl back to her bedroom or whenever someone comes to hang out with her while she works, because she’s still a little light on non-essential furniture.

“No, thank you.”

“Let me guess – you don’t trust me to make coffee to your sure to be ridiculous specifications?” Cat’s lips twitch into a half-smile. “If you wanna make yourself comfy.” She waves a hand towards the mattress, and Cat pauses, hands settling on her hips as she turns to regard Kara with disbelief. “What?”

“I am _not_ sitting on that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know where it’s _been_.” Kara presses her lips together to stop a laugh escaping them.

“But I need you lying down – which is why I suggested something comfortable,” she adds, and Cat rolls her eyes.

“And what’s wrong with a bedroom?” Cat asks, and Kara’s brain very nearly short-circuits, her pulse starting to race as Cat stares at her with expectant eyes.

“Uh… I didn’t think you’d go for that.”

“It’s better than lying on the _floor_.” Cat gives the mattress one last contemptuous look before turning her back on it with a huff. “Well?” She prompts, when Kara doesn’t say a word.

“I don’t… there’s only m-my bedroom.” Kara’s barely stuttered since she finished high school, but with the weight of Cat’s heavy, heavy gaze on her she finds it hard to breathe, let alone speak. “The others don’t have furniture in them yet.”

“That’s fine,” Cat says smoothly, like she gets invited into other people’s bedrooms to pose for paintings every day, and Kara blinks at her in surprise. “Chop chop, Kara, I don’t have all day.”

She snaps into action when she hears the impatience in Cat’s voice, grabbing the blank canvas she’d had ready to go on her middle easel and tucking it under her arm. She’s already got everything else she needs in her bedroom, from where she spends early mornings or late nights sitting on her balcony and painting the beauty of the sunset or the glory of the sunrise, and she leads Cat down the hall with slightly shaky steps.

Cat pauses in the doorway, glancing around the room with sharp, interested eyes, and Kara can see very clearly, in that moment, the cutthroat journalist that had defied everything that stood in her way to claw her way to the top in a male-dominated world.

She likes the intense look in Cat’s eyes, thinks she wouldn’t mind its focus being on her.

“Sure you don’t want to change into something else?” Kara asks one final time as she swaps the half-finished painting of that morning’s sunrise for the blank canvas and starts setting out her pencils and brushes in a neat little line.

“You seem awfully eager to get me out of this dress, Kara.” Kara glances up at the words, Cat’s smirk dangerous as she advances towards Kara with quick, easy steps, and Kara swallows thickly around the lump in her throat when she sees the dark look in Cat’s eye. “You’re already about to get me into your bed, isn’t that enough for you?”

Kara feels her cheeks flush, more flustered than she’s felt in a long, long while, and _she’s_ supposed to be the one doing the smooth-talking here, not Cat – she feels off-balance, like she’s struggling to find her footing, not entirely sure she’s still able to form actual, coherent words.

“For now,” she eventually manages to answer, relieved that her voice doesn’t tremble, and Cat’s smirk widens when Kara’s eyes drop briefly down to those inviting lips. “Though this _was_ supposed to be a just-woke-up, early morning kind of painting…”

“Fine,” Cat replies with an almost fond roll of her eyes. “Find me something to wear.”

“Of… of mine?” Cat just looks at her, and Kara nods, turning sharply towards her drawers and riffling through until she finds an old faded college t-shirt that is exactly the kind of thing she was hoping for.

Cat looks unimpressed as Kara hands it to her, but she reaches behind her for the zipper of her dress all the same, and Kara whirls back around so quickly that she almost falls over, Cat’s quiet laughter ringing in her ears.

“You can turn around now,” she murmurs a few moments later, and when Kara does it’s to find Cat wearing the shirt and nothing else, her dress neatly folded over the back of the wooden chair sitting in-front of Kara’s vanity.

God, this was a terrible idea, because even though the shirt is longer on Cat than it would be on her, it’s still _short_ , just barely covering the top of Cat’s thighs.

“It’s a good thing I decided to put underwear on this morning,” Cat murmurs, seemingly more to herself than anyone else, and Kara nearly gapes, mind going blank because does that mean that some days, Cat doesn’t wear a thing beneath those tight skirts that she seems so fond of wearing?

God, she is not going to survive this day.

“Um, if you could…” She gestures towards the bed, sure her cheeks are flaming, and she bites on the inside of one and tells herself to get herself under control, because she’s supposed to be a _professional_ and this is anything but.

Then again, she’s not used to working with someone as attractive as Cat Grant, and she should have probably factored _that_ into the equation before she’d asked Cat to do this.

But she hadn’t really been thinking and now here they are, far too late for Kara to take back (and she’s not sure she would, even if she had the chance, because the sight of so much of Cat’s bare skin on display is worth the torture).

She manages to keep herself together enough to arrange Cat the way she’d been planning, a sheet tangled around her lower legs as she lies on her back, one hand stretched out above her and her face turned towards Kara, who sets the easel up by the side of the bed.

“I’m just going to take some pictures,” she murmurs as she reaches for her camera, “so that I can just get the outlines done today and then go back and fill in the finer details later. It means you won’t have to spend as long here, and that it doesn’t matter if you need to move around a little. You can talk, too.”

“Good, because if you thought I had it in me to be silent for more than a few minutes, then I’m afraid you’re sorely mistaken.”

“I didn’t think anything less,” Kara tells her as she snaps a few photographs of Cat stretched out before her, trying to ignore the way it makes her heart race and her breath catch, to see Cat in her bed like this.

Definitely a terrible idea.

And the greatest one she’s ever had in her life.

She sets the camera back on her bedside table when she’s satisfied with the pictures before she settles on a stool and picks up her pencil, beginning the laborious task of sketching the outline of Cat’s body onto the canvas.

Cat’s eyes never leave her face, and Kara wonders if she’s looking for something, and if she finds it.

She thinks, from the slight look of awe she glimpses in green eyes as the room fills with the quiet scratch of pencil on canvas, that she might have done.

“Does Carter spend a lot of weekends with his father?” Kara asks when the silence becomes too much for her, too heavy with the weight of Cat’s eyes and the intensity of her gaze. “He doesn’t talk about him much.”

He talks about Cat, though, or gushes, Kara supposes, would be the better word. It’s obvious that she’s his entire world, and Kara knows that the same can be said for Cat, from the way she’s seen the other woman look at her son, sometimes, when she thinks Kara isn’t paying attention.

“Not very often,” Cat admits, her voice quiet and filled with something solemn, and Kara wonders whether she would have been better off keeping her mouth shut. “Christopher is usually too busy with his latest flavour of the week to remember he has a son.” There’s a bitterness in Cat’s voice as she says the name, a bite that Kara hasn’t heard pass her lips before.

“I’m sorry,” Kara murmurs when she notices the way the corners of Cat’s lips have downturned. “I didn’t meant to upset you.”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know it would.”

“Well, I mean, considering you’re not together anymore I probably should have,” Kara points out, and thinks this Christopher must be an idiot to have let someone like Cat get away.

“You can ask,” Cat says a few moments later, obviously seeing the unvoiced question in Kara’s eyes. “About why we got divorced.”

“I don’t want to pry.”

“I’m lying in your bed half-naked,” Cat points out casually, and Kara nearly drops her pencil. “I think we’re beyond that, now.”

“Okay,” Kara shrugs, frowning in concentration as she tries to encapsulate the exact curve of Cat’s hips. “Why did you get a divorce?”

“He cheated on me.” There’s a quiet pain in Cat’s voice, an echo of an old agony as her mouth twists even further down, and Kara wonders how many nights Cat has spent, crying over the husband that didn’t deserve her. “Claimed it was because I was too busy for him. Which I was,” she lets out a quiet sigh, “but…”

“But that doesn’t excuse what he did,” Kara finishes, voice tight with anger, hand gripping the wood in her hand so tightly that her fingers tremble. “He’s an idiot,” she tells Cat vehemently, “to let someone like you slip away. To… to _hurt_ you like that. You deserve better.” Cat looks touched, if a little surprised, by Kara’s insistent words, as anger continues to roil in Kara’s gut – she hopes she never comes face to face with the ex, because she’s not entirely sure what she’d do.

“Thank you,” Cat replies quietly, voice filled with her gratitude. “Sadly better hasn’t materialised in the eight years since. Maybe I’m destined to be alone.”

“Or maybe you just haven’t been looking in the right places,” Kara murmurs, lifting her gaze from the canvas in order to meet Cat’s eyes, watching the way she stares steadily back.

“What about you?” Cat’s the one to blink and look away, focuses briefly on the view just barely visible from where she lies, of the city skyline outside of Kara’s floor-length glass windows.

“I told you at the gallery opening, I’m single.”

“Yes, and I can hardly imagine that that’s due to a lack of interest. Look at you.” Kara’s lips curve into a small smile – she doesn’t think she’ll ever get tired of hearing Cat say that she thinks she’s attractive – and she shakes her head slightly.

“There was a girl, back in New York,” she offers quietly, because Cat has shared some of her past with Kara, and she thinks it’s only fair to return the favour. “It was a messy break-up. I… I cared about her a lot more than she cared about me.” Kara focuses on the lines she’s drawing, the curve of Cat’s ribcage and the set of her shoulders, a waver in her voice that she wishes she could wipe away. “She left me for someone else and I… didn’t take it so well.”

It had been a rough few months, made harder still by the fact that her closest friends and her sister were so far away.

“It’s another reason why I moved here,” she continues, feeling Cat’s curious eyes on her but unable to look her way. “I’d been planning on it for a while, but I didn’t want to leave her behind. Eventually that didn’t matter so much.”

“You deserve better, too,” Cat tells her, voice filled with a deep-rooted certainty, her words soft and wrapping around Kara like an embrace. “Someone who appreciates you for everything you are.”

“I’m still looking.” In truth, she isn’t, not really. She hasn’t had any interest in dating since Angie, had been content to throw herself into her work and into packing up her things and moving several thousand miles away.

And then she’d met Cat, and she’d wondered if maybe she would like to try dating again, after all.

She’s not been brave enough to ask yet, though. And it had felt like Cat had been pulling away, until today, and Kara’s not sure what had triggered either change.

“You’ll find someone,” Cat says with an easy kind of confidence, and Kara wonders if maybe she already has.

“Maybe one day,” she replies, keeping her voice light as she begins to sketch the lines of Cat’s face. “What made you choose journalism?” She asks, steering them onto safer topics, and she watches Cat’s eyes come alive at the question.

“I wanted to bring out the truth, show it to the world. I don’t believe in smoke and mirrors and secrets and lies; I think the public has a right to know what goes on behind closed doors. I started as a gossip columnist because it was the only thing a woman could be hired for,” her lips curl into a small sneer, and Kara wonders what Cat must have been like, fresh-faced and ready to conquer the world, and thinks that that would have been a sight to see. “I hated it,” she admits, her eyes a million miles away, “but you have to start somewhere, and eventually I worked my way up. And I made some mistakes along the way…” She trails off, shifting slightly on the bed and Kara wonders if she wants to play with her hands, has noticed Cat does that whenever she’s particularly lost in thought. “And I have a lot of regrets, but for the most part they paid off, in the end.”

“What regrets?”

“I loved my work, I _devoted_ myself to it, and I pushed everything else aside. I… I isolated myself, from a lot of people. I told myself I didn’t need anything else other than my job but sometimes I wonder whether I should have done some things differently.”

“I get that,” Kara tells her, completely absorbed in what she’s doing, sneaking glances at Cat every few minutes to check that she’s not missing any details. “Getting lost in work. I do it, sometimes. It drives my sister crazy.”

“Not many people understand it,” Cat murmurs, and Kara nods in agreement. “I got better, when I had Carter. I didn’t… I didn’t want to lose him, like I did my first son.” Kara’s pencil skids across the page in surprise, and she breathes out a quiet curse as she rushes to erase it.

“You have another son?”

“He lives with his father. I was too young to know what to do with a baby, too young to want one, too obsessed with my career to feel the need to settle down, so I… I let his father whisk him away.” Cat’s eyes look unbearably sad, and Kara wishes she’d never asked, wants to see joy flickering in them once again. “I haven’t seen him for years. He’s probably about your age now.”

There’s an edge to Cat’s voice as she says that, as if she’s only just realising the many years that separate them, and Kara wonders if that’s the thing that’s holding her back. She doesn’t know how old Cat is, not exactly, but she knows she’s probably close to double her age, at a completely different stage of her life, and maybe she doesn’t want anything to do with a twenty-five year old who’s barely seen any of the world.

She doesn’t even know if Cat’s into women.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Cat’s voice wavers, and Kara sees her jaw clench as she takes a shaky breath. “He’s better off without me.”

“No,” Kara disagrees with a shake of her head. “I’ve seen you with Carter and you’re… you’re a great mother, Cat. Excellent, even. You’ve raised him on your own for the past eight years, and he’s one of the most amazing kids I’ve ever met, and you did that.”

“Thank you,” Cat whispers, her voice quiet, eyes softening at Kara’s words.

“Just telling the truth,” Kara shrugs, and Cat’s smile is almost shy.

“How about you, anyway? How did you get in to art?”

“My parents,” Kara’s own eyes turn cloudy as she swallows and fixes her gaze back on the canvas, the outline of Cat’s body starting to come into shape, features sharpening with every fluid movement of Kara’s wrist, her fingers dusted with charcoal. “After they died I… I was scared I’d forget them. I’d never really drawn before beside the things that I’d done for school but… my foster Dad gave me a sketchbook and a pencil one day and I started to draw things. At first it was just their faces, over and over again so I didn’t forget but then… Then I started with memories, too. The painting you bought is one.”

“I… It doesn’t bother you, does it?” Kara glances at Cat and sees that she’s shifted slightly, lifting her head a little and frowning over at her. “Seeing it in the apartment?”

“No, no. It’s not… I _like_ being reminded of them,” she says softly, pausing in her drawing to meet Cat’s gaze. “I didn’t, at first. I never looked back at old sketches because whenever I saw their faces or remembered something I’d start crying and I’d smudge them by mistake, but now… It doesn’t hurt as much. I can look at that painting and see where we used to go on vacations together and I can remember how happy we were and smile, instead of crying. That one,” she nods towards the painting that hangs above her bed, “that was the view from outside my parents’ bedroom window.”

It’s not much – it’s just their yard, a blue swing set in the middle, a treehouse hidden in the line of trees at the bottom in-front of the fence – but it reminds her of home. “When I was a kid, at the weekends I’d crawl into their room and we’d watch cartoons together and we’d have breakfast in bed, and my Mom would always open the curtains so that the sun would shine in, and sometimes I’d get distracted by looking outside instead of at the TV, so they built a window seat into the wall so I could sit and watch the world go by.”

It’s been so long since she’d talked about her parents that the words come tumbling out, and she bites her tongue to keep herself from spilling more, a dozen memories and experiences from her childhood, to this woman who’s become so easy for her to talk to.

She doesn’t want to say any more, doesn’t want to remember being left with her cousin whilst both their parents went to a wedding, doesn’t want to think about her and Clark curling up on the couch to watch horror movies that Kara was too young to see whilst somewhere not too far away, a drunk driver was careening into their parents’ car on the freeway, and both their lives had gone up in smoke.

“I’m sorry you lost them,” Cat whispers, her eyes filled with enough remorse to make Kara’s heart feel heavy.

“Yeah,” Kara murmurs, resuming her sketching. “I am, too.” They’re quiet for a few moments then, the room filled only with the sound of Kara’s pencil mapping out Cat’s delicate features, and the quiet of both of their breathing.

Cat’s eyes are back on Kara’s face, watching her with almost the same level of scrutiny that Kara is affording her, and Kara begins to relax under Cat’s careful gaze, instead of feeling her skin itch from the intensity of it.

“Was art your major?” Cat is the first one to break the silence, growing uncomfortable with it the longer it stretches on.

“Art and history,” she replies easily. “Though I nearly dropped out before I was finished. We had a gallery showing when I was in my third year, and there was a guy there who wanted to buy one of my pieces, said he hadn’t seen talent like it in years. Wanted me to pack my bags and go to New York with him, learn a thing or two as his intern before setting me loose in the world. I almost did.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Eliza,” Kara smiles at the name, just like she always does, because she couldn’t have asked for a better woman to take her in. “My foster Mom,” she adds for Cat’s benefit. “She told me she’d kill me if I let all that work and tuition go to waste, that if the internship was meant to be then it could wait until after I graduated. And it did.”

Sometimes she can barely believe how lucky she’s been, how things have worked out for her, slotting into place throughout the years. She’d sold paintings before she’d moved to New York, but never anything on the scale as she had afterwards, could never have dreamed, on her first day in the city that never sleeps, that she could find herself in an apartment like this, with a _woman_ like this, just over three years later.

“I’m still learning, though,” she murmurs as she sets her pencil down, her outline complete and ready to be filled in. “There’s always something new to learn, just like there’s always a new story to write.”

Cat hums quietly as Kara begins to prepare her paints, glancing over at Cat critically to try and recreate her skin tone.

“I’ve never been painted before,” Cat says conversationally as she watches Kara work. “Photographed a thousand times, but never painted.”

“A beauty like yours belongs on a canvas,” Kara murmurs, more to herself than to Cat, but she still hears the slight catch in her breath that she tries to cover by clearing her throat, and smiles to herself, head bent and hair falling over her face and shielding her expression from Cat’s eyes. “Am I boring you yet?”

“Not at all.” Kara glances up to detect any hint of a lie, but Cat looks genuine and Kara smiles happily. “It’s fascinating watching you.”

“You’re not too bad to look at yourself,” Kara murmurs in reply, watching as Cat rolls her eyes.

“That’s not what I _meant_.” Kara grins as she raises her brush for the first time as Cat huffs out her response from the bed. “You get this… glow, almost. It’s like you light up, and it’s… it’s incredible to watch.” Kara’s cheeks tint red as she focuses on her even brushstrokes, and not the frantic beating of her heart in her chest. “How much longer do you think this will take? I have a conference call at four, but I can reschedule it if you need me to.”

“No, no,” Kara shakes her head, because Cat has already taken so much time out of her day for her. “To be honest, I probably have enough on here that you could go now, if you wanted.”

“So eager to get rid of me?” Cat teases, voice riddled with amusement, and Kara glances up quickly, horrified.

“No! No, not at all. You just said before that you had a lot of work and even though you said you weren’t bored, I can’t imagine that this is very interesting for you.”

“Better than staring at yet another article written by my incompetent staff,” she mutters, and Kara wonders _just_ how many meetings Cat has daily where she stands and rants at various employees. “I’d like to stay and watch a while, if that’s okay. Unless I’m distracting you.”

“Well, you are very distracting,” Kara murmurs, almost quietly enough for Cat not to hear her. “But I don’t mind it. It’s not often I have company like this.”

“You mean you don’t have an endless stream of attractive models posing in your bed?”

“Tragically not, no,” Kara pouts, and Cat’s smile is soft and wonderful and Kara knows that that’s going to be the expression that she paints onto her face, immortalised forevermore. “You’re the first.”

“I’m flattered.”

“You should be,” Kara tells her, seriously, and Cat hides another smile.

She’s too absorbed in what she’s doing to hear the sound of the front door clicking open, but Cat does, Kara noticing her head cocking to one side as she looks towards the open bedroom door, and it’s only then that Kara hears the sound of quiet footsteps.

“Kara?” She hears her sister call, and breathes out a quiet curse because if Alex walks in and finds Cat in her bed like this, Kara is _never_ going to hear the end of it. “I finished work early.” She hears Alex wander towards her studio and glances helplessly at Cat, who’s already pushing herself to her feet and reaching for her dress. “Where are you?”

“Give me a minute!” She yells back, knowing that she has approximately two seconds before Alex comes barrelling into her bedroom anyway. “Cat, you don’t have to - ”

“It’s alright,” Cat shrugs, and her eyes look more closed-off than Kara has seen them all day. “I _do_ have work that I should probably be getting on with, and you have the photographs, right?” Kara nods, even though she thinks she’s committed enough of Cat’s face to memory to be able to finish the painting without them. “I’ll just…” She waves towards Kara’s bathroom, dress in hand, before disappearing behind the door, just as Alex steps into Kara’s bedroom.

“What are you doing in here?” She asks with a frown as she notices the way Kara’s perched, facing the bed instead of sitting out on the balcony. “And why does your bed look - ” She cuts herself off at the sound of the bathroom door clicking open, Cat handing Kara her neatly folded t-shirt back whilst Alex gapes at them and Kara wishes for the floor to swallow her whole.

“Thank you,” she whispers to Cat as the elder woman holds her gaze for one brief moment, a small smile playing around the edges of her lips before it’s carefully wiped away. “For doing this.”

“You’re welcome, Kiera.” She tries not to wince at the name, and wonders if she fails when she sees something miniscule shift in Cat’s expression. “I look forward to seeing the end result.” She wanders away then, clicking down the hall in her expensive heels, and Alex waits until the door shuts behind her before bounding over to Kara’s side and staring down at the unfinished painting with wide eyes.

“You were painting her half-naked in your _bed_?!” She asks, voice too loud and excited and Kara wonders if she’s a bad person for wanting to throw her off the balcony for interrupting the first opportunity she’s gotten to spend alone with Cat in weeks.

“I _was_ ,” she says pointedly, setting down her paintbrush because she knows she’s probably not getting any more work done soon, not when Alex is looking at her like that. “Until you came barging in.”

“Should’ve put a sock on the door.” She groans, and Alex snickers as Kara pushes herself to her feet and wipes her hands clean of smudges of charcoal and pale paint on a towel. “Seriously, though, in what world does someone let someone else paint them like that,” Alex waves towards the canvas, “if they don’t have the hots for them? You gotta ask her out, Kara.”

“We’ve already _talked_ about this.”

“Not enough,” Alex counters, following Kara as she heads towards the kitchen in an attempt to escape her sister’s giddiness. “Look, what harm can it do? She says no, you look like a kicked puppy for a few days, and you move on. She says yes and…” Alex trails off and wiggles her eyebrows, and Kara just barely refrains from hiding her head in her hands.

“She says no and I have to move apartments to escape from the awkwardness that comes from being rejected by my neighbour,” Kara points out, but Alex only rolls her eyes.

“For what it’s worth, I think she’ll say yes. She was totally having sex with you with her eyes at the gallery, and she would _not_ be posing for you in your bedroom if she didn’t want you in that bed _with_ her, Kara, trust me.”

“I don’t know…” She bites at her bottom lip, because whilst she’s sure that there’s at least a little part of Cat that’s attracted to her, she doesn’t know if too many things are standing in their way, doesn’t know if she could ever gain the courage to admit to Cat that she might want something more than the tentative friendship they’d managed to strike up, and doesn’t know if she can stand to be rejected by her, no matter how nicely.

“Okay, well, why don’t we get you some liquid courage,” Alex pulls out a bottle of whiskey from the cupboard, and Kara immediately shakes her head, because the last time she’d drank the stuff she’d been so sick that she hadn’t been able to eat anything for two whole days afterward.

“No, thank you,” she makes a face as she pushes the bottle away from her and towards her sister. “I don’t want to be drunk when I ask her out for the first time.”

“Aha!” Alex calls, pointing an accusing finger towards Kara’s chest. “You said ‘when’, not ‘if’. I’m winning you over, one step at a time.” Kara rolls her eyes but Alex just grins. “Okay, okay, fine. But when you do finally grow the balls to ask her out, how’re you gonna do it?”

“Well, actually…” Kara trails off, biting her bottom lip as she glances at the bottle sitting on the kitchen counter. “That kind of gives me an idea. At least to get to talk to her again, and if more follows…” She finishes with a shrug, and Alex gives a delighted little whoop, and Kara wonders just what the hell she’s managing to talk herself into.

She also can’t wait to find out, even as she feels nerves starting to flutter in her stomach.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Cat lets out a deep breath as she shuts her front door behind her, shutting out Kara sunny Danvers and the ridiculous way she makes her feel.

She should have never agreed to this, to modelling for her, but she’d been so thrown by the sight of Kara in her bullpen that she hadn’t been able to resist pulling Kara away from Cat’s computer hobbit, eyeing her up like she was piece of meat, away from the lunch date with the man she insisted was just a friend, and Cat just couldn’t seem to keep away.

And she’d been doing so _well,_ only seeing Kara for the few seconds it took for her to collect Carter from her studio on the nights he spent painting beside her, only making the briefest of small talk as Carter had washed his hands and traipsed back home and into bed.

He’s asked Cat, a few times, if Kara could come over for dinner again, but Cat had always been ready with an excuse. Sometimes his face had fallen, and her resolve had nearly wavered, but then she’d remember the temptation of Kara’s lips when Carter had gone to bed the last time she was in Cat’s apartment, and she tells herself that things are better this way.

Kara Danvers deserves better than for Cat to ruin her, like she has every single other person she’s ever dated – the reason she hadn’t found love since she’d divorced her ex-husband had been because she’d given up looking for it.

She hadn’t _needed_ it. She had her work, which kept her too busy to have any kind of relationship, and she had her son, to keep her company after a long day at the office, and she didn’t _need_ anything else.

And then along came Kara, who made her heart feel something other than cold for the first time in years, who made it race and her breath quicken, made her wonder whether she’d be happy with a lifetime of loneliness, after all.

And here she is, fifty years old and starting to develop _feelings_ for a woman half her age, the very definition of a mid-life crisis and she cannot, for the life of her, understand why Kara looks at her the way she does, like Cat holds the sun and the stars and the whole damn world in her hands.

Like she’d kiss Cat back, if she ever built up the courage to kiss her first.

Cat wonders if it’s too early for a drink as she makes her way into her office, glancing longingly at the makeshift bar she has against one of the walls, the room almost an exact replica of her CatCo office, of her home away from home.

She itches for the burn of bourbon at the back of her throat, to wash away the intensity of Kara’s gaze as she’d stared at her, splayed out in a bed that smelled like her (Kara’s perfume still lingers in Cat’s hair, on her skin, and she almost regrets handing that t-shirt back to her because it had smelt like Kara, almost felt like she’d been wrapped around her, and it had been intoxicating), and god, she should have never agreed to it.

But she’d been thrown by Kara’s appearance and then by her request, and then when Kara had mentioned that she could always ask someone else to do it instead…

It’s not often that Cat gets jealous, but the thought of someone else getting to watch Kara paint them onto canvas, of getting to watch Kara work when it’s something Cat’s been craving almost since the moment they met… something had snapped inside of her, and she’d agreed before she could remind herself what a terrible idea that would be.

And oh, she should never have suggested moving things to Kara’s _bedroom_ , but if the girl thought she was going to stretch out on the floor at her age then she had another thing coming. But maybe she should have suffered through it, because now she’s sure the explicit dreams she’d been having with increasing regularity ever since Kara’s body had curled around her as she’d sat at that damn easel are going to become even more vivid, is sure that tonight she will dream of a hot mouth moving down the column of her neck, her hands clenching into fists around Kara’s purple sheets.

She wonders if Kara would have rather painted her naked, legs splayed and completely open and vulnerable in-front of her, wonders how intense her gaze would have gotten _then_ , wonders how dark her eyes would have gotten, whether she’d hold the brush so tightly that it would shake, whether her heart would beat loudly enough for Cat to hear it in the quiet of the room.

_God_.

She decides she will take a glass of bourbon, try and take the edge off (though she thinks, from the insistent ache that’s settled between her thighs, that a single glass isn’t going to be anywhere near enough), downing it in one before setting the glass back on the bar with a shaky breath, trying desperately to get herself back under control.

She changes into her comfiest pair of sweats and her favourite oversized sweatshirt – if anyone in her office could see what she liked to wear at home, or hell, anyone in National City, she’s not entirely sure they’d be able to recognise her as the perfectly-put-together Queen of all Media. Her favourite thing to do when she gets home is to change, to strip away the clothes that embody her work persona and put them carefully away, to soften and turn into the mother that Carter knew, the woman that no-one would believe existed should they see her on a typical day in the office.

It’s rare that anyone gets to see her this relaxed, and the thought brings her back to Kara, who has already managed it more times than she can count. Cat doesn’t let her guard down easily, but with Kara she’d been doing it since day one, since she’d seen the way Carter had come to life around her.

There was, it seemed, something about Kara Danvers that seems to draw Grants in, an almost magnetic attraction that made her charm impossible to resist, and Cat wonders when she’d fallen so completely under her thrall, wonders if she’d ever had a chance to resist her pull.

Cat shakes her head as she wanders back to her office, barefoot, and tells herself to put all thoughts of Kara out of her head for the moment (almost an impossible task, considering whenever she blinks she can see blue, blue eyes, and whenever her hair shifts she’s temporarily surrounded by the scent of her perfume, the one she’d almost drowned in those few weeks ago when Kara had been pressed so close and it would have been so easy for Cat to give in).

Luckily for her, she wouldn’t have gotten to where she is today if she didn’t have the ability to compartmentalise, and she tucks Kara away in the back of her mind whilst she throws herself into the work she’d purposefully left for this weekend, knowing that Carter would be out of town.

He doesn’t get on with his father, not in the same way that he gets on with Cat. It had been difficult, at first, to get him to actually leave their apartment on the sparse occasions that Christopher wanted to spend time with him. Chris was critical and could be harsh on Carter, found it hard to understand his quietness and his shyness and his reservations around other people, and it had been that, along with the affair, that had been the reason for their inevitable break-up.

He’s gotten slightly better with their son as the years have passed, but Carter still only spends a handful of weekends with him a year, which suits the three of them just fine.

Cat doesn’t like being alone in the apartment – it’s too vast, too empty without the sound of quiet laughter hiding behind every corner. She isn’t used to silence in her home – she’d spent her childhood in boarding schools surrounded by other girls, spent college with a roommate, and her first few years in Metropolis whilst she’d been waiting for her big break had been spent living with three other women in a two bedroom apartment.

She was used to chaos and noise – two things that had been absent from the long summers she had spent at home alone with her mother, after her father had died – and she finds the silence eerie, finds it all too easy to let her mind settle on darker thoughts that she can push away whenever her son is close.

There’s a stereo in her home office for that exact reason, and she presses play and lets the sound of soft classic music flow from the speakers as she settles a pair of glasses over her nose and opens her laptop, sorting through the stack of papers she’d brought back with her that morning and deciding where to start.

She’s interrupted some time later by the quiet ringing of her phone, glances at the clock and sees with some surprise that almost four hours have passed, and she should have probably stopped to eat something a long time ago.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she answers when she sees Carter’s name on her screen, pressing the phone to her ear and tilting up her glasses so that they rest on the top of her head, rubbing delicately at her eyes. “Are you having fun?”

_“It’s okay,”_ he sniffs, and it warms Cat’s heart, just a little, to know that he would rather be here at home, with her.

She’d been terrified, when she’d fallen pregnant with Carter, that she was going to make all the same mistakes she had with Adam. Her company was no longer only just being built, but that didn’t mean that she could take a step back from it – she threw herself into her job, into making CatCo the absolute best that it could be, and she’d told herself that it didn’t matter what she lost to keep it going as long as the company thrived.

She regrets losing Adam every day, and she’d been determined not to make the same mistakes with Carter. Her mother had told her with an angry glare and vicious words, when Cat had told her she was pregnant the first time, fresh out of college and with no time to be the mother Adam would have deserved, that it was a mistake and she’d poison her children the same way that Katherine had poisoned her.

Needless to say, it had put even more strain on their already tenuous relationship.

And when Katherine had been proven right, when Adam had been whisked away by his father for a better life… well, that hadn’t exactly helped matters, either. Not when Katherine had called her to gloat, and Cat had slammed the phone down and drank whiskey until she could barely stand, desperately clutching at photographs of the son she was sure she would never see again.

But Carter… she’d held him in her arms, after a c-section where she’d been terrified that she was going to lose him, a squalling ball of blankets that had quieted as she’d rocked him gently, and she’d vowed that this time, she would do better.

And whenever Carter lets her know that she has, whether it be with words or with gestures or with the soft smile he saves only for her, it makes her heart sing.

_“He’s taking me fishing tomorrow.”_ Cat presses her lips together as she imagines the look that will be on Carter’s face, his nose scrunched in distaste.

“Try not to fall in,” she replies lightly, almost able to hear him roll his eyes – a habit that he had more than definitely picked up from her.

_“I_ won’t _, Mom. Besides, I can swim.”_

“Not in a _lake_.” It’s Cat’s turn to make a face. “And don’t let him keep you out there for too long, either. You need to be back here by six so that you can finish your schoolwork, remember.”

_“I know. Have you seen Kara?”_ His voice turns excited, like it always does whenever he talks about her, his eyes lighting up with warmth. _“I’ve been working on some of things she taught me while I’m here. Dad said art was stupid, you don’t agree with him, do you?”_

“You should know by now that I rarely agree with your father on anything,” Cat murmurs, feeling a flash of annoyance that Chris would show open derision for something their son had come to love so much. “You do whatever makes you happy, Carter.”

_“Thanks Mom,”_ he answers quietly, and Cat can hear the gratitude clearly in his voice. _“I love you.”_

“I love you too, sweetheart,” she says around a smile, leaning back in her chair and wincing as her spine cracks – she’s definitely been sat here for too long.

_“You’re not working too hard, are you?”_ Cat knows that he worries about her being on her own – he’d suggested that she invite Kara over for dinner this time, and she’d stared at him suspiciously for one long moment and wondered if he were about to try and do some kind of parent trap manoeuvre on the two of them.

He’d just stared innocently back at her, and Cat had dropped her suspicions for now.

_“And have you eaten?”_

“Not yet,” she tells him, smiling when she hears him tut in disapproval, another habit he’s gotten from her. “But I will, I promise.”

_“Okay. I should probably go, I think Dad’s calling me downstairs. I’ll see you tomorrow.”_

“Bye sweetheart.” He hangs up and Cat sets the phone back down on her desk and stretches her arms above her head, deciding to finish the sentence she’s on before going in search of food as her stomach grumbles loudly.

She finds some leftovers Ella had left for her in the fridge, and slides them into the oven whilst she hops into the shower, eager to let scalding water wash away the aches and pains that a day of sitting in her oversized desk chair never fail to leave her with.

Afterwards she eats with the news for company, glancing over the budget reports that she’d been handed yesterday with a critical eye. To the outside world her job probably looks glamourous, even easy, but Cat is a perfectionist and she doesn’t give up control easily, and it means she oversees everything that happens in her company and has a workload that would be enough for three people.

She has two assistants to help things run more smoothly – she’d started with one, but they had never been able to last more than a few weeks, three or four months at best, unable to cope with Cat’s busy schedules and many needs, and eventually she’d trialled two at the same time and things had improved somewhat after that.

There’s a quiet knock on her door just as she’s finishing drying her dishes, and there’s a frown on her face as she dries her hands and makes her way to answer it, because she isn’t expecting company and it’s rare for her to receive any house calls.

She supposes she shouldn’t have been surprised when she sees Kara standing on the other side of the door when she pulls it open.

“Hey.” She’s changed out of the faded, paint-spattered jeans and t-shirt she’d been in earlier that day and into sweats and a thin white tank, instead.

The pants sit low on her hips, low enough for a strip of pale skin to be visible beneath the hem of the tank, skin that Cat longs to swipe her fingers (or god, her _tongue_ ) over until Kara was quivering against her.

“Hi.” Cat leans her shoulder against the door as Kara appraises her, feels more than a little naked and vulnerable beneath her gaze, her hair damp from her shower and curling around her shoulders, her face bare of make-up.

“I, uh, I brought you this.” Kara looks down at Cat through her lashes, an almost shy expression on her face as she holds up a bottle of bourbon. “It’s the same brand from the gallery opening.” Cat’s touched that she even remembers. “As a… thank you, for modelling for me.”

“I thought that was supposed to be payment for Carter’s lessons?” Cat asks, glancing up at Kara with shrewd eyes and ignoring the slightly sheepish grin she gets in reply.

“Well, yeah, but you didn’t have to do it. And I’ve bought this now and if you don’t take it then my sister will drink it and I guarantee she won’t appreciate it as much as you will.” Cat purses her lips to hide a smile as Kara shifts her weight a little nervously from one foot to the other.

“Share a glass with me?” Cat asks after a few moments of heavy deliberation – she shouldn’t invite Kara in, she knows that even as she’s offering it, but… she’s lonely and the thought of shutting herself back in her study and going back to her work fills her with no small sense of dread. And Kara is here and looking at her with hopeful eyes and there’s just something about her… something about her that makes Cat _want_ , so fiercely that the force of it surprises her, so fiercely that she’s not sure she physically has it in her to take the bottle and shut the door in her face and send her back across the hall.

“Sure.” Cat steps aside to let Kara pass, breath catching when she brushes against Cat as she goes, and Cat is once again engulfed by the scent of that perfume that she’d tried so hard to wash away in the shower.

“Your sister gone home for the night?” Cat asks as she reaches for two glasses, Kara pushing the bottle over to her for Cat to twist off the lid and pour a generous helping into each one. She raises the glass to her lips and lets her eyes slip closed in pleasure as it hits her tongue and slides down the back of her throat, exactly what she needed at the end of this day.

“Mhm.”

“I can see why you moved cities to be closer to her.” Kara comes alive whenever Alex is around, an easy comradery to their relationship, and Cat is glad that Kara had found her way to a family and a sister with so much love for her.

“She’s my best friend,” Kara replies softly, lifting one of her shoulders in a half-hug. “My whole world, really. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through those first few years without her.” Cat smiles at the look on Kara’s face as she talks about her sister, the soft openness and happiness, and wishes it didn’t make her heart thud painfully in her chest.

Kara lifts the bourbon to her lips, then, and takes a hesitant sip – and immediately coughs, wincing as she swallows and making Cat chuckle.

“Not a big bourbon fan?”

“More of a wine and cocktail kinda girl,” she grimaces, and Cat’s smile widens. “But maybe it’ll grow on me.”

“And if not, more for me.” Cat leaves the bottle on the kitchen counter as she wanders over to the couch, letting out a soft sigh as she relaxes back into the soft leather seat, patting the space next to her when Kara hovers uncertainly in-front of her.

“Do you have any sisters? Brothers?” Kara asks once she’s seated, taking another tiny sip of her drink and managing not to sputter this time.

“No,” Cat murmurs, gaze turning dark as she casts her eyes towards the window, at the view of the city spread out before her. “I was a mistake.” Her mother had told her that on her eighth birthday, when Cat had cried because her father wasn’t there to celebrate with them, and it was a sentiment she’d repeated several times since, usually when she was four glasses deep into whatever her drink of the week was. “One that my mother didn’t want to repeat.”

“Oh, Cat.” Kara’s voice is laden with sympathy, and then there’s a hand resting on her thigh, squeezing gently, the pressure heavy and the heat of it burning into Cat’s skin even through the thick material of her sweats.

She turns to see Kara leaning towards her, her eyes dark and aching, and Cat swallows thickly and looks away.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Kara tries to comfort her, but Cat lets out a bitter laugh because –

“You don’t know my mother.” Her voice is cold and distant, and Cat is starting to regret ever answering the door. “She never wanted me, kept me only to appease my father, but when he died…” Cat still has nightmares about that day, sometimes.

Of being dragged out of a school and into a hospital in the middle of the day, her father collapsing in the middle of his office.

She can still smell the bitter, terrible tang of death and disinfectant, heavy in the back of her throat, and she’s hated stepping foot in a hospital ever since.

“She sent me away to a boarding school the first chance she got, and I made my own family there.” It had been mismatched and messy, but there she’d found a home.

“I bet you ruled the place,” Kara murmurs, latching onto the topic and trying to steer Cat out of her darkest thoughts, and she’s endlessly grateful for the girl, curls one of hands over the one on-top of her thigh and tries to ignore the way the contact makes Kara’s breath hitch, the way it makes her squeeze Cat’s thigh harder, sending a spike of heat running through her veins.

“For the most part,” Cat acknowledges, downing the rest of her bourbon in a single gulp and leaning to put her glass on the coffee table, leaving her hand on Kara’s even though she knows she should move away, shouldn’t stoke the flames of the fire that already burns within the both of them.

“Prefect?”

“Oh, I was far too rebellious for that.” Cat’s lips curl into a smirk at the memories – sneaking away from classes to smoke behind the back of the school, all the under the radar parties in their dorm rooms, all the sneaking out in the dead of night to the boys’ school, across the road.

All the heated kisses and more traded with some of the other girls behind closed doors.

“Oh yeah?” Kara quirks an amused eyebrow, looking very interested indeed. “What kinda things did you get up to?”

“Anything and everything that would scandalise my mother,” she replies around a smirk, and Kara’s laughter rings beautifully in her ears.

“Bet you never let it affect your grades, though.”

“Of course not,” Cat scoffs – she’d had a perfect GPA, and at least half the other girls in the school had hated her for it. “Good grades were my ticket out of town and to a college far, far away.” She’d been desperate to get away from her mother, to live a life away from her prying, disappointed eyes. “I bet you were the perfect little angel in school,” she murmurs, leaning her head against the back of the couch to observe Kara with careful, curious eyes.

“Nope,” she replies with a shake of her head, and Cat quirks a surprised eyebrow. “I mean, I _looked_ like a nerd – I have the mousy hair, the awful dress sense and the glasses,” Cat can imagine her perfectly, and it makes her smile. “But I wasn’t a very good student. Found it hard to concentrate, hated everything aside from my art classes. I got my act together in my last couple of years of high school only because my art teacher saw my potential and told me I wouldn’t get into a good college if I didn’t make more of an effort, so.” She shrugs, taking another tiny sip from her glass – before handing it over to Cat with a grimace. “Here – this is wasted on me.”

“Why, Kara Danvers,” Cat murmurs as she takes the drink, letting her fingertips drag across the back of Kara’s hand as she goes, “are you trying to get me drunk?”

“What? I… no!” Kara squeaks, her cheeks flushing a wonderful shade of pink. “ _No_. I just… I hate the stuff, and you don’t…” She trails off, meets Cat’s gaze and then huffs out an adorable sigh. “And you’re just teasing me, aren’t you?”

“It’s just so easy to make you blush,” Cat drawls, gasping when she feels Kara’s fingers dig a little harder into her thigh in response. “And it’s such a pretty look on you…” The bourbon’s loosened her tongue, and Cat is starting to forget why that’s a bad thing, when Kara is looking at her with dark, stormy eyes.

They’re beautiful, and look so very inviting, so very easy to drown in, and Cat thinks she might do just that, when Kara shifts a little closer to her on the couch, can’t stop herself from looking down at her lips and biting down on her own, throat tight and pulse racing loudly in her ears.

She sees Kara coming from a mile away – it’s in the way her eyes dart down to Cat’s mouth, the way her tongue slides along her bottom lip, the way the air leaves her lungs in a shaky breath before she’s leaning closer.

And Cat knows that she needs to move away, that she’s already pushed things too far for one night, and if she feels the heat of Kara’s kiss against her lips it’s going to be so much harder for the both of them come morning.

But oh, it’s not that _easy_. Because there’s something about Kara that keeps drawing her in, that makes her crave and want with a desire that shakes her just as much as it consumes her, and it would be so _easy_ to turn her head towards Kara, tilt her chin and let their lips brush together in just the barest hint of a kiss.

Instead, she turns her cheek and stops Kara with trembling fingers pressing against her sternum, and the confused look on Kara’s face when her eyes flicker open makes Cat’s chest ache.

“We can’t do this,” she whispers, her voice filled with very little conviction, because there’s a part of her that’s still tempted to slide her hand from Kara’s chest to around the back of her neck, curl her fingers into her hair.

“Why?” Kara’s frowning, eyebrows drawn together and an adorable little crease between her eyebrows, and Cat knows that if she stays there on that couch for even just another second then she’s going to crack, so instead she stands, pushing herself upright and taking a deep, shaking breath and trying to ignore the way her heart is trying to beat its way out of her chest.

“Really, Kara?” She turns to face her with her hands on her hips, keeps her expressions stern in the face of Kara’s confusion. “Look at us.” She gestures between them with one hand, and watches hurt bloom across Kara’s face and is a little taken aback as the younger woman rises angrily to her feet.

“What, like I’m so beneath you?” Her jaw is clenched, her eyes swirling with dark fury, and Cat wants to laugh because god, that’s not what she’d meant at all.

She’d meant look at them – Kara, so young, so beautiful and caring, so selfless and giving, so loving and wonderful, with her whole life ahead of her. And look at Cat – old and bitter, a son Kara’s age and another closer to her age than Cat is, cold and heartless, if the tabloids are to be believed, who’d given up on love a long time ago.

She’d meant look at them – look at how much better than her Kara deserved, someone her own age who could give her the world, not someone like Cat who wasn’t sure she could give her a single thing that she needed.

Kara’s staring at her, waiting for an answer, and words of disagreement are on the tip of Cat’s tongue – but then she bites them back.

Because Cat knows that Kara won’t believe a word she says, will insist that Cat is enough, that she can _be_ enough for her, that she doesn’t want better than her because she just wants _her_ , and Cat isn’t sure that she’s strong enough to resist her arguments and her reasoning.

No, this will be much easier if instead, she ensures that Kara hates her, if she believes that Cat is as dead inside as the people of National City believe.

And oh, it’ll hurt the both of them, Cat knows, but she thinks it will hurt so much less than dragging this on for any longer will.

Kara will recover, and she will move on to bigger and better things, and Cat’s been on her own for eight years and she can handle several more.

“It would never work,” is the only answer she offers Kara, with a lighthearted shrug, and it’s enough. It’s enough for Kara to let out a disbelieving scoff, before she’s stalking out of Cat’s apartment without a second glance, letting the door slam loudly behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Don't hate me too much :p
> 
> (I'll fix it, I promise).


	6. Chapter 6

“Walk me through it again,” Lucy asks the next day, sitting beside Kara on James’ couch, in town visiting him for the weekend, and looking at her with wide, sympathetic eyes. “Because I cannot believe that _anyone_ would be able to resist that face of yours.”

“There’s nothing more to _say_ ,” Kara replies with a little pout – she’s been brooding ever since she’d stalked out of Cat’s apartment last night, spent her evening in-front of her easel and getting her whirling thoughts out on canvas. “I tried to kiss her, she pushed me away, and she told me that it would never work because I’m not worthy of her.”

“Were those her actual words?” Alex is on Kara’s other side, her eyes narrowed into slits, and Kara wonders if she’s going to have to make sure that Alex doesn’t accidentally bump into Cat in the hallway. “Because if they were, she can go to hell.”

“Well, no,” Kara sighs, shifting a little in a seat. “But it was _implied_. She said ‘look at us’, and when I asked if she meant that I was too _beneath_ her to date, she said it wouldn’t work. And I got mad and left.”

“You deserve better than her,” Alex murmurs, the arm wrapped around Kara’s shoulders squeezing her protectively. “You’ll _find_ better than her.”

“I don’t know,” Kara mumbles, because Cat Grant has _everything_ and Kara wants her more than she’s wanted someone else in a long, long time. “I just don’t _get_ it. She was flirting with me. She said I looked pretty and that was the only reason I thought it _would_ be a good idea to kiss her. God, I’m such an idiot.”

She drops her head against the back of the couch with a groan, because what she’d had with Cat, the light playful banter… it had brightened her days, made her heart sing and her pulse race, and now she’s managed to ruin it and she doesn’t even know _how_.

She just hopes that she hasn’t ruined things with Carter, too, because teaching him to paint is always the highlight of her day, and watching him bloom and come into his own right before her eyes almost an honour.

“You’re not an idiot. I’m sorry for encouraging you,” Alex murmurs with a sigh, and when Kara cracks her eye open it’s to find her sister looking at her with worried eyes. “I thought it’d end differently.”

“Yeah,” Kara mutters, “me too.”

“But I don’t get it,” Lucy interrupts, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “Cause it sounds like she _does_ like you. I mean, why would she invite you back to her place for a drink and cuddle up with you on the couch if she didn’t?” Kara just shrugs, because she doesn’t _know_. “And _you’ve_ been awfully quiet.” Lucy’s accusing gaze flickers over to James, who’s sitting in the armchair opposite them. “Don’t you know Cat better than the rest of us?”

“I do,” he agrees, inclining his head. “I wouldn’t say I really know her, though. She’s a private person and I’ve only been at CatCo for a few months.”

“ _But_?” Lucy prompts, sensing there’s more left unsaid, and James heaves a sigh loud enough to get Kara’s attention, looking like he wonders whether it’s a good idea to be saying anything at all.

“But… for what it’s worth… I do think Cat feels something for you.” Kara feels her heart clench, because she doesn’t understand _any_ of this – she’s seen Cat’s eyes on her lips, seen the way her eyes had darkened and her pupils had dilated as Kara had loomed closer, _knows_ that she’d wanted Kara to kiss her. “I saw you two at the gallery opening, and I’ve never seen her like that before. I’ve never seen her _smile_ that much before. She looked happy, and so did you.”

“So then why - ”

“Maybe because she’s scared,” James interrupts with a small shrug. “I don’t know her very well, but she doesn’t… she doesn’t open up to people easily. To _anyone_. And maybe when she said ‘look at us’, she didn’t mean that she was out of your league – maybe she meant that you were out of hers.”

Kara just blinks at him in shock, because that… that might just be the most ridiculous thing she’s ever heard.

“But that… that doesn’t make any _sense_.”

“It kinda does,” James replies gently, with another shrug. “I mean, you’re not exactly the same age.” Kara’s more than aware of that, but she’s thought about it enough and it doesn’t _matter_ , not to her. “Maybe she’s wondering what you could possibly see in her.”

Kara sees a lot in Cat – she sees one of the most wonderful women she’s ever met, who had overcome every single obstacle in her way to climb her way to the top of the ladder, someone beautiful and incredible, someone who’s managed to singlehandedly run one of the most profitable companies in National City whilst raising the most amazing kid that Kara’s ever met. She’s seen Cat in her natural environment, shouting orders and exuding power, and she’s seen her relaxed and at home, looking at her son with soft, warm eyes filled with so much love that it was almost tangible in the air between them.

“And she let me draw my own conclusions and storm out of there because that was easier than admitting the way she feels,” Kara finishes, shaking her head and letting out a quiet sigh.

She doesn’t know how she feels about that. She’d been wallowing in self-pity ever since Cat’s apartment door had rattled in the frame behind her, giving herself the weekend before she’d try to forget about it and move on, but now?

Now that Cat might feel the same and was just scared, thinking that Kara deserves better than her?

She doesn’t know how she’s supposed to just _ignore_ that information and carry on like everything’s fine.

She wonders if she should take a step back and wait for Cat to come to her, if she wants something more, or if she should try just once more, and see what happened.

_If_ she ever actually sees Cat again – she’s pretty sure the woman could avoid her until the end of time if she wanted, despite them living just a few feet apart.

“Can we talk about something else?” She asks, her mind spinning out of control and making her desperate for something else to concentrate on. She thinks she’s spent enough time thinking about Cat for one day, and Lucy will be heading home tomorrow and any time they can spend together, the four of them, is precious. “Or play something?”

“Taboo!” Lucy immediately volunteers, and the other three groan because Lucy Lane is _competitive_ treats every game like it’s a life-or-death situation.

Kara wiles her weekend away surrounded by laughter and her friends, and she feels lighter as she walks with Alex to her apartment before heading back to her own. It’s starting to get dark around her, the moon and the stars shining high above, and Kara finds herself sneaking several glances upwards, already planning out her next painting, feeling a longing in her bones to get back home and into her studio and to whittle the rest of the night away.

She’s glancing down at her phone to text Alex to let her know that she got home safely, too engrossed in the screen to look up as she steps into the open elevator to notice who’s already standing within it, and when she hears someone clear their throat and recognises the expensive perfume wafting around her in the enclosed space, Kara feels something like dread curl through her stomach, looks away from her phone to see Cat standing beside her, the doors sliding shut and trapping them together.

It’s quite possibly the most awkward elevator ride of her life.

Because Cat refuses to look her in the eye, staring resolutely ahead, and Kara can’t look _away_ from her. She’s so beautiful, whether she’s like this or like she had been last night, in her sweats and bereft of make-up, and Kara’s throat feels tight because she wants desperately to reach out and eliminate the space between them, take Cat’s hand in her own and ask her what she really meant yesterday.

But she can’t even open her mouth, let alone find the words.

She finds her voice when the doors are open and Cat is striding down the hallway without a second glance, hurrying after her and calling her name.

“Cat, wait.” She freezes at her front door, key already in the lock, fingers of her other hand pressing against the wood, and Kara watches her thin frame shake with the force of the breath she takes, but she doesn’t turn around. “I wanted to apologise, for the way I ran out yesterday.”

She’d just been so _angry_ , that Cat had been encouraging her, kept looking at her with those wanting eyes and telling her she was beautiful, only to practically laugh in her face when Kara had finally gained the courage to make a move, and she’d been too wounded to do anything other than lash out.

“You don’t need to apologise,” Cat murmurs, twisting her key to open the door but not stepping inside. “If anything, _I_ should be.” She takes another deep breath before she finally turns around, and Kara barely recognises the woman looking back at her, a guarded expression on her face, her eyes carefully blank, so far away from the light and warmth that usually sparkles within them whenever they’re alone together. “I didn’t mean to lead you on. But I liked the way you looked at me so I encouraged you and I… I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”

“Already forgiven,” Kara manages to reply, though she feels a little numb, feels like she’s looking at a stranger instead of the woman that had come to mean so much to her in such a short space of time. She realises something, then – that Cat has never directly lied to her. She’s never said that she doesn’t have feelings for her, just that it would never work, and Kara entertains the idea of asking her point blank just to see what she’ll say.

But if Cat’s convincing enough in her denial, Kara’s not sure she’d be able to handle it without crumbling in-front of her.

“Can we just… forget it ever happened?” Kara asks hopefully, though she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to. She thinks she’ll always remember the feel of Cat’s breath ghosting across her lips, of manicured nails digging lightly into her chest as she was held at bay.

She’s just glad that Cat stopped her before their lips actually met, because Kara’s not entirely sure that she’d be able to survive knowing what Cat’s lips felt like moving against her own but never be able to feel it ever again.

“Okay,” Cat murmurs with a curt nod, and Kara manages a grateful smile even though she feels like the floor is falling out from underneath her feet. “But I should really get going,” she continues, and the smile drops from Kara’s face because she wonders if maybe they won’t be able to get past this, after all. “Carter will be home soon.”

“Tell him I said hi.” Cat nods again before she’s gone, and Kara waits until the door has shut between them before she lets out a ragged sigh, wipes her sleeve over her eyes angrily as she feels tears sting at the back of them, and it’s _stupid_ , she shouldn’t be feeling like this, and suddenly the thought of going back into her apartment isn’t as comforting as it had felt just a few short minutes ago.

Because in her studio lies that painting of Cat, stretched out in her bed (and Kara’s pillows smell like her perfume and she’d barely been able to sleep there last night, remembering what Cat had looked like there whenever she closed her eyes, half-expecting Cat to be there when she blinked them open once more), and she doesn’t know if she can stand the sight of it.

So instead of painting she texts the sister she’d just left and asks if she’s up for drinks, because the thought of downing a few margaritas and dancing with some faceless stranger at a bar is starting to sound really appealing.

She doesn’t get the reply she’d been hoping for, Alex claiming she needs to be up too early for work the next morning, and she sends a pouting face back that she can practically _see_ Alex rolling her eyes at.

When she messages Lucy, instead, she gets a much more enthusiastic response, and she grins as she reads the reply, already planning what she’s going to wear.

x-x-x

“Have I told you that I hate you for making me get up this early yet?” Kara groans as Lucy herds her out of her apartment the next morning, bleary-eyed and her head pounding, knowing she’s going to be feeling the scant few hours of sleep she’d managed to get the night before later in the day.

“Only about a dozen times,” Lucy replies cheerfully – and Kara has no idea _how_ she’s so chipper, because she’d drank at least as much as she had last night, and they’d collapsed into Kara’s bed to sleep at the same time and Lucy had prodded her awake after she’d already showered – locking Kara’s door behind them and taking her hand to tug her along. “But I’m buying you breakfast to make up for it.”

“Oh yeah,” Kara remembers, brightening a little at the prospect of coffee and pancakes to fight off her building hangover. She smothers a yawn as they wait for the elevator, Lucy’s hand still in hers like she’s afraid Kara’s going to bolt the second she gets the chance, and she doesn’t hear the sound of high heels approaching until it’s too late, until Lucy is yanking her into the elevator and there’s another body stepping in behind them and _god_ , Kara’s never had this much bad luck before in her life.

Because when she blinks her eyes fully open for probably the first time that morning, it’s to come face to face with Cat Grant, who looks perfect and presentable, her hair curling loosely around her shoulders and wearing a blouse and skirt combo that almost has Kara’s jaw dropping because of how _magnificent_ it makes her look.

And she’s glancing at Kara with a raised eyebrow, no doubt able to smell the alcohol that she’s sure is still seeping through her pores, dressed in her comfiest pair of jeans and a loose sweatshirt, still in yesterday’s make-up with tired, bloodshot eyes, and Kara’s never felt so small in her entire life.

Then Cat’s gaze is turning to Lucy, as the brunette presses the button for the ground floor and hums quietly to herself, her eyes lingering at where their hands are still joined, gaze sharpening and lip curling and Kara wonders how they look, with Lucy wearing her dress from the night before, yesterday’s eyeliner smudged under her eyes, smelling like Kara’s shampoo and shower gel.

She tries to drop Lucy’s hand but she tightens her grip and Kara shoots the side of her head a questioning look, but she’s too busy smiling at Cat with all her teeth, and it’s enough for Cat’s jaw to clench before she pointedly looks away and taps her foot impatiently against the floor.

“ _You_ certainly move on quickly, don’t you?” Cat murmurs the second the elevator doors open, and then she’s striding forward and out of the lobby before Kara can even blink, staring after her with her jaw gaping, and Lucy smirking victoriously beside her.

“Okay, she is totally into you. And totally just wanted to kill my ass for holding your hand. We can work with this.” Lucy drops her hand in favour of looping their arms together as they make their way outside, the cool air already starting to clear Kara’s head, even as she squints in the sunlight.

“What do you mean we can work with this?” She asks, more than slightly alarmed – Lucy has a habit of meddling, and sometimes it doesn’t end well (and when it _does_ end well, Kara never hears the end of the gloating).

“Operation make-Cat-Grant jealous is officially a-go,” Lucy tells her as she steers Kara towards her favourite diner.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea…” She trails off, biting her bottom lip, because the whole idea just makes her nervous. “I don’t feel like she’d respond _well_ to it.”

“But then she’ll see what she’s missing and maybe she’ll come to her senses,” Lucy argues, and she has that look of steely determination in her eyes that usually never means good things. “And then you guys will live happily ever after, thanks to me.”

“I think you’re getting a _little_ ahead of yourself.”

“Me?” Lucy pouts, mocking offence. “Never.” Kara just shakes her head, and her pout transforms into a grin. “Okay, well, how about this – you come to CatCo with me to say goodbye to James, and we’ll scope the situation out. And if it goes bad, then we’ll stop.”

“…Okay,” she eventually agrees as Lucy is pushing the door to the diner open, because Cat _had_ looked kind of adorably, unreasonably mad at the sight of the two of them, and _maybe_ she’s curious about what kind of rise she’ll manage to get out of her if she sees them twice in one day. “Just this once.”

Lucy grins as Kara leads them to a booth and picks up the menu, even though she already knows what she’s having. She devours enough pancakes to make even Lucy, used to her ravenous appetite, stop and stare, and drinks one coffee, grabbing another to go before they make the short journey over a few blocks to the CatCo building.

The office is buzzing when they get there, and Lucy takes the hand that Kara’s not clutching her latte with as the elevators open onto James’ and Cat’s floor.

“Won’t she recognise you as James’ fiancée though?” Kara murmurs as they start towards the bullpen, because even though it’s rare for Lucy to visit him at work, usually arriving to National City late on a Friday and leaving early on a Monday, Kara knows she’s been here before from the easy way she steers them towards his office.

“Nah,” Lucy replies with a shake of her head. “She doesn’t pay attention to anything around her, and I’ve only been here a couple of times, and only ever to James’ office. I don’t even think she knows he’s engaged.”

Cat is pacing in her office when they round the corner, one of her two assistants seated on the couch within it, the other shooting nervous glances inside from where he sits at his desk, and Kara wonders if that’s a good sign or not.

James is standing by Winn’s desk talking in a hushed voice, but he raises his head with a smile when he sees them – and then frowns down at their joined hands, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re trying to make Cat jealous,” Lucy tells him helpfully, making Winn’s eyes bulge and James let out a good-natured chuckle.

“And how’s that working out for you?” He asks, eyes crinkling with amusement, and Lucy shrugs, manoeuvring them so that the pair of them will be clearly visible the next time Cat turns and stalks back along the length of her office.

“Well it worked pretty well in the elevator this morning,” Lucy replies with a cheerful smile, and Kara feels her blood run cold when Cat’s eyes raise, finding her and Lucy and her lips curling into a clear sneer before she whirls on her heel and barks something to her assistant, who rushes over to the bar in the corner of her office and pours a drink with shaking hands. “And the second stage appears to be going successfully,” she adds, shrewd eyes on Cat’s back as she pauses at her desk, hands pressing against the wood as her assistant approaches with the drink.

“You caught her on a bad day,” James tells them, glancing towards Cat with a hint of worry in his eyes. “Her mother’s in town, and she’s dropping by later.” Kara immediately drops Lucy’s hand, because she can remember clearly the emotion that had danced in Cat’s eyes on Saturday night when she’d spoken of the mother that had never wanted her, remembers the rage that had swirled in her gut at the thought of the woman not appreciating her daughter the way she should, and she hates to think that she could be inadvertently making Cat’s day even worse. “So she’s kind of…”

“Stressed,” Winn supplies, darting a glance towards the woman in question, who’s downing three fingers of scotch like it’s water before setting the glass down on her desk and settling down at the chair behind it.

“That’s one word for it,” James mutters, turning his back on his boss and glancing towards Lucy with sparkling eyes. “Am I allowed a kiss before you go? In my office so that Cat doesn’t see and get the wrong idea?”

“I’ll wait for you here,” Kara murmurs as she watches the pair of them go, pulling her phone out of her pocket to play a game when she notices Winn’s curious gaze on her. “What?”

“Nothing,” he answers too quickly, gaze quickly dropping back down to the screen in-front of him. Kara just waits, sensing that he’s not done. “I just… you and Miss Grant?” Kara glances back over at Cat, who’s rubbing at her temples with a phone pressed against her ear and Kara can tell, from the way a muscle jumps in her cheek and the way her lips twist down at the corners, that she’s on the phone with Katherine Grant and doubts that anything good is being said. “Seriously?”

Kara just shrugs, because there isn’t anything going on – she just _wants_ there to be.

“Kiera!” She hears before she can give Winn a proper reply, and Kara’s head snaps up, blinking at Cat through the glass walls of her office in shock, unable to move for one long moment. It’s only when she sees the annoyance flash across Cat’s face as she takes a deep breath and prepares herself to shout again that Kara finds her feet, walking towards Cat’s door on slightly unsteady legs.

The assistant rushes past her as Kara steps over the threshold, approaching Cat at her desk warily.

“Is there something you need, Cat?” She asks curiously when Cat just stares at her, unblinking – there’s tension in the set of her shoulders, the lines on her face, and Kara aches to wipe it all away.

“Yes.” She says the word a little reluctantly, and Kara arches an eyebrow, waiting for the question. “I… My mother is in town, and she wants to have dinner with me tonight. I don’t want to subject Carter to that, and Ella can’t stay beyond seven tonight so I was wondering if you could perhaps watch him, until I got home. If you’re not too busy with your _girlfriend_.” Kara had been ready to agree when Cat had spat the last sentence like the words burned at the back of her throat, and she has to bite back a smile at the fierce look in green eyes.

“Well, first of all, Lucy isn’t my girlfriend,” she decides to put Cat out of her misery, because she hadn’t even liked this plan _anyway_. “She’s just a friend. She’s actually James’ fiancée.” She watches the way Cat’s eyes widen, sees the flush that creeps up her neck and over her cheeks, and this time she can’t stop a small smile. “So there’s no reason to be jealous.” Cat’s eyes narrow into a glare, and Kara rushes on before she has the time to snap something back at her. “And I’d love to watch Carter tonight.”

Cat looks like she wants to address the jealousy comment, but she lets it slide, and Kara takes that as a tiny victory.

“Thank you,” she replies stiffly, and Kara nods. “I shouldn’t be back too late, but…”

“I’m sure I can find a way to keep him entertained,” Kara shrugs, because she hasn’t seen the kid for a few days and they have a lot to catch up on, and she still has so much to teach him. “Would you rather we stayed at your place or?”

“Whatever you like.”

“Okay.” Kara sees Cat’s eyes narrow slightly and glances over her shoulder to see that Lucy has reappeared, rolls her eyes at the way she raises an eyebrow when she sees Kara in Cat’s office. “I’ll see you tonight then?”

Cat just nods before she looks away, a clear dismissal, and Kara makes her way over to where Lucy stands, practically vibrating on the spot – she seizes Kara’s arm when she reaches her, and Kara winces at the strength of her grip.

“Tell me _everything_.”

“There is nothing to _tell_ ,” Kara insists as they make their way back to the elevators, Kara having offered earlier to walk Lucy back to James’ and see her on her way back to Metropolis. “She asked me to babysit her kid tonight.”

“Oh.” Lucy looks disappointed. “Not even a mention of me?”

“Well, she did call you my girlfriend with a pretty furious look on her face.” Lucy beams. “But I told her you were James’ fiancée.” Kara has to bite back a laugh at the way her face falls.

“Kara!” She drags her name out, chastising, as the elevator doors open at the lobby. “That wasn’t the plan!”

“That plan wasn’t going to work,” Kara points out, because she _knows_ Cat and it just… wouldn’t have ended well. “But I appreciate you trying to help.”

“You like her,” Lucy shrugs, and Kara smiles a little sadly because yeah, she really, really does. “And she’s like, ridiculously hot. It’s the least I could do.”

x-x-x

Cat comes home at nine p.m. with a sour look on her face, and Kara glances over the back of the couch to see her stumble and winces, wondering how many glasses of bourbon she’s needed just to get herself through the night.

There’s some superhero movie playing on the TV – Carter had fallen asleep ten minutes in, his head resting on Kara’s shoulder, and she hasn’t paid much attention since, had been playing her latest app obsession on her phone and trying not to wake Carter by jostling him, waiting for Cat’s return.

They’d spent most of the night in Kara’s studio but when Carter’s eyes had started to grow heavy she’d suggested they move over to Cat’s apartment instead, and he’d immediately bounded over to the TV and been horrified when Kara told him that she hadn’t seen any of his favourite movies, and had promptly decided that it was his job to educate her on them.

Cat’s eyes soften as she takes in the sight of Carter fast asleep, some of the lines on her face smoothing as she rounds the side of the couch and glances down at them, illuminated only by the soft glow of the lamp beside them.

“How was dinner?” Kara murmurs, keeping her voice low, and Cat’s expression darkens slightly at the question.

“As awful as I imagined it would be,” Cat sighs, folding herself down into the armchair opposite the couch – she crosses her legs and the slit in the thigh of her skirt flashes Kara an incredible amount of smooth, pale skin, and she swallows hard and tears her gaze away, because she’s not supposed to be making this _weird_. “Did Carter behave himself?”

“Yeah, he was perfect.” He stirs at the sound of his name, blinking up at Kara with bleary eyes and smiling sleepily when he sees Cat sat opposite.

“Hi Mom!”

“Hi sweetheart.” Cat’s whole body relaxes as she glances at her son, as though the hardships of the day are easier to bear when she’s with him. “How was your day?”

“Awesome! Kara’s really cool.” He looks up at her with adoring eyes, and Kara grins and ruffles his hair affectionately.

“You’re pretty cool yourself, kid.”

“How’s your Mom?” Carter asks it warily, and Kara wonders how many times he’s had to watch Cat try and keep it together in-front of Katherine Grant, probably the only woman on this entire earth with the ability to tear Cat down from the perch she’s built for herself.

“As insufferable as ever,” Cat replies with a delicate sigh. “She’s in town for the gala on Wednesday.” Kara remembers Cat mentioned it in passing, some charity event or another that CatCo threw throughout the year. “And she expects me to bring a date.” She says the word through gritted teeth, and Kara feels a tiny flutter of jealousy in the pit of her stomach at the thought of some boring corporate guy in a suit taking Cat out that she quickly swallows it back because she has no _right_.

“Why don’t you take Kara?” Carter asks innocently, and Kara nearly falls off the couch, head whipping around to stare at the side of his face – when she glances back at Cat, she’s looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Carter,” Kara answers carefully when Cat doesn’t. “I’m sure your Mom can find someone better than me.” She tries to say the words lightly, but she can’t help the bitterness that creeps into her voice and sees Cat wince out of the corner of her eye.

“And I’m sure Kara has better things to be doing than spending the night with me at a boring gala,” Cat adds, but Kara disagrees.

“Actually,” Kara replies carefully, ignoring the warning glance Cat throws her way. “It’d be pretty fun. If only to see the look on your Mom’s face when you turned up with a twenty-five year old woman on your arm.”

God, Kara thinks it’d be magnificent, because from everything she’s heard and knows about Katherine Grant, she can guess that her daughter dating a younger woman would _not_ be the greatest thing to ever happen to her.

Cat purses her lips like she’s actually considering it.

“But like I said, I’m sure you can find someone better.” She flashes Cat a sweet smile, watches as her eyes narrow into slits at her tone.

“I don’t know,” Carter says cheerfully, completely oblivious to what he’s inadvertently started between the two women. “You make my Mom happier than I’ve seen her around anyone else in a really long time.”

Cat’s eyes widen and Kara presses her lips together to hide a smile, heart thudding in her chest at the innocent words.

“Oh really?” Kara can’t help but ask, and Carter nods emphatically.

“Yeah, it’s like - ”

“Carter,” Cat cuts him of by barking his name, and he falls silent, looking over at his Mom with wide eyes. “I think it’s time you were getting to bed young man, don’t you?” He huffs but does as he’s told, throwing his arms around Kara for one last hug before skipping off down the hall, Cat following at his heels.

Kara gathers up her things and leans against the back of the couch as she waits for Cat to return, still smiling when the other woman appears from down the hallway, lips pursed as she strides barefoot towards where Kara stands.

“I meant what I said,” Kara shrugs when Cat’s eyes meet hers. “I wouldn’t mind going. Your Mom seems like kind of a bitch,” Cat’s lips twitch at the words, and Kara grins. “And I reckon it’d get under her skin.”

“Oh, it would.” Cat’s eyes glitter dangerously, and Kara bites at her bottom lip. “I have little doubt about that. But...” She trails off, looking up at Kara uncertainly, and Kara wonders if she’s thinking about the last time they were alone in this room together, the kiss that never happened, the air between them starting to grow heavy. “I don’t want to complicate things between us any further.”

“What’s to complicate?” Kara asks lightly even though she knows it’s probably a bad idea – she doesn’t need to fall for Cat any more than she already has, and a fake date probably _isn’t_ what she needs right now.

But… she still remembers the look in Cat’s eyes before Kara had leaned in to kiss her, the longing as she’d glanced at her lips, and wonders if maybe a night alone could be the perfect opportunity to convince Cat to give her – to give _them_ – a chance.

“Nothing ever happened, remember?”

“It’s a bad idea,” Cat murmurs, though she looks like she’s considering it.

“Maybe,” Kara shrugs. “But I don’t care.”

“I don’t think I do, either,” Cat replies, and Kara feels her heart start to race in her chest as Cat glances up at her, her eyes dark and swirling with too many emotions for Kara to stand a chance at reading them. “But I don’t want to lead you on any more than I already have.”

“I’m under no illusions about what this is.” She keeps her voice light, because she can’t bear the thought of Cat turning her down for the second time in three days. “I know it doesn’t mean anything.”

Cat stares at her for one long moment as though she’s trying to decide whether she’s telling the truth, and Kara forces herself not to shift uncomfortably under Cat’s gaze.

“If you’re sure…” She says eventually, and Kara bites at the inside of her cheek so that her grin isn’t too wide.

“What time do you want me to pick you up?”


	7. Chapter 7

Cat’s standing on her balcony, surveying her city, when there’s a knock on the open door behind her.

She comes out here when she’s feeling particularly stressed, and this week certainly qualifies. If seeing Kara’s heartbroken face every time she closed her eyes wasn’t enough, she’d also had to deal with the unexpected appearance of her mother and then, and _then_ , because she’s an idiot, she’s somehow managed to sign herself up for a date with the woman she’s supposed to be avoiding at all costs.

It was supposed to get _easier_ , after pushing Kara away, crushing her by letting her think it would never happen but god, it hadn’t been. After that door had closed behind Kara, Cat had drank until she forgot the look in Kara’s eyes before she left, hating herself for what she’d done.

On Sunday night, alone after Carter had gone to bed and thinking about a lifetime of mistakes, Cat had caved, and she’d knocked on Kara’s door, prepared to apologise and tell her she was an idiot, that she didn’t want to forget it ever happened and maybe they would be able to figure this out, after all.

But she’d gotten no answer, and the next morning she’d seen Kara emerging from her apartment with a beautiful brunette and Cat had felt her heart sink low in her chest, anger burning through her because maybe she didn’t mean that much to Kara, after all.

And it would have been easy for her to admit what she’d done, when Kara had told her that Lucy was nothing more than a friend. But in the cold, harsh light of day, seeing Kara smiling with a woman her own age, Cat had wondered what on earth she could give Kara that she wouldn’t be better off getting from somewhere else.

From someone that she could walk down the street holding their hand, without a media storm shouting ‘cradle robber’ and ‘midlife crisis’ in their wake.

There’s a second knock, tearing Cat out of her thoughts, and she turns on her heel, glass of whiskey in her hand, to see James Olsen hovering in the doorway. Most of her employees are already gone for the day, rushing off home to their families, desperate to escape Cat’s wrath (they know better than to get on her nerves when Katherine is in town, walk on eggshells around her and it just makes Cat hate them even more), but James is one of the rare good ones, had selflessly offered to stay and help her out because he knew she needed an extra set of hands.

James is exceptional at his job, and Cat can scarcely believe that she’d managed to lure him away from Metropolis, sometimes. Not that she’ll ever admit that to his face, of course – she has an image to maintain, and she doesn’t want him getting complacent.

“I have those layouts you were after, Miss Grant.” She sees no folder in his hands, and raises a disbelieving eyebrow. “I left them on your desk.”

“Thank you.” He bobs his head, but doesn’t move, and Cat stares at him for one long moment – he looks like he’s itching to say something, but is terrified of opening his mouth.

“Can I join you for a drink?” That wasn’t what she expected. She respects James, likes him, even, but they’re not friends. They don’t _talk_ , beyond the standard meetings between a CEO and her art director, and he’s certainly never approached her like this before.

She wants to say no, but she’s too curious to find out what he wants.

“I suppose.” He turns to snatch a glass from Cat’s makeshift bar before making his way towards the glass table on her balcony, to where the half-finished whiskey bottle stands, pouring himself a splash of amber liquid before joining her at the railing, dangling his arms over the edge of it and keeping his gaze focused on the horizon.

“Can I say something?” He doesn’t look at her, just takes a sip of his drink, and Cat eyes the side of his head curiously.

“No.” She watches his lips twitch into a smile. “But I suspect you’re going to anyway, so out with it, Olsen. I don’t have all night. And I don’t share more than single glass with anyone.”

“It’s about Kara.” Cat stiffens at the sound of her name, but doesn’t say a word, and James wisely keeps his eyes on the city skyline stretching out before them. “I know about your date tomorrow night.”

Cat supposes she shouldn’t be surprised. Kara and James seem close, and it stands to reason that she’d share something like that with her friends. But it makes her wonder just what _else_ Kara has been sharing, and the thought unsettles her.

She wonders if James is here to warn her away from his friend, to tell Cat that she needs to keep her distance because Kara deserves so much better, and Cat wonders if he’ll be surprised when she tells him that she agrees.

God, she shouldn’t have even _agreed_ to the date in the first place. But she’d missed Kara in those few weeks where they hadn’t seen one another, and modelling for her had lit a fire in Cat, a longing to be close to her again, and when Kara had looked at her with those blue, blue eyes and told her that she _wanted_ to go… she’d been powerless to say no.

She’s got it bad, and she thinks it just might kill her.

“And what?” Her voice comes out sharper than she intended, defensive, fingers tightening around her glass so hard that her knuckles flash white. “Is this the overprotective big brother talk? The part where you tell me to stay the hell away from her?”

“No.” Cat blinks at him in surprise, and James shifts so that his side is pressed against the railing, finally turning to face her. “She likes you,” he says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world, and Cat wants to laugh because it’s _not_. “And Kara doesn’t… she doesn’t fall for people easily. And I don’t think you do, either.”

“What is your point?” Cat asks through gritted teeth, hating the way he’s looking at her – like he can see straight through her, into the heart of her, like he knows exactly why she’s doing what she’s doing. It unsettles her, her skin itching and her pulse racing, and she downs the rest of her drink in a single gulp.

“My point is… It’s not fair for you to keep messing her around. For either of you.” He’s looking at her with sombre, serious eyes, and Cat has to look away. “And if you’re not willing to try, then you need to tell her that, outright. Because Kara’s my friend and I don’t want to see her get hurt. And for what it’s worth… I don’t want to see you get hurt, either.” Cat shoots him a surprised glance, because she didn’t think he cared – assumed her saw her as the cold-hearted, demanding and uncaring boss that the rest of her staff did.

“You probably don’t care what I think,” he continues, and Cat opens her mouth to say something scathing, to get him to look _away_ , but he’s speaking again before she gets the chance. “And you probably hate me for coming out here and talking to you about this, and I promise that after tonight I never will again. Kara would kill me if she knew I was doing this.” Cat’s lips twitch into a small smile, because she can imagine her anger perfectly. “But I think you should give her a chance. I think you can make her happy, and I think you deserve a shot at happiness. The both of you.”

With that, he tips his head back to finish the rest of his drink and walks away, setting his glass down on the table and disappearing back into the office without saying another word, leaving Cat alone with her tumultuous thoughts, and she’d thought they’d been bad before but oh, they’re so much worse now.

Because Kara’s friends were supposed to talk her _out_ of this, were supposed to convince Kara that coming anywhere near Cat was a terrible mistake, not _encourage_ her, not encourage _this_ , whatever uncontrollable, unstoppable force kept pushing them together.

The one that made Cat want to forget about all the things that divide them, take Kara into her arms, and never let her go.

And really, her resolve had been cracking since the very start, had almost crumbled when Kara’s lips had been so close to meeting her own, and it had withered and died when she’d knocked on Kara’s front door at midnight two days ago.

She wonders if maybe this had always been inevitable, since the moment she’d tripped over one of Kara’s boxes and nearly fallen face-first to the floor – Kara’s been creeping up on her since that very first day, constantly surprising and _intriguing_ her, and she might be one of the most fascinating people that Cat has ever met because she’s so _different_.

She’s selfless and she _cares_ and she cares about Carter, treats him so well like it’s effortless, like he hadn’t spent thirteen years of his life staring at people’s shoes and mumbling when he talked to everyone other than his mother.

It had taken Ella three weeks to coax a full sentence out of him.

It had taken Kara three minutes.

Cat wonders if she’s being stupid to let her doubts and her insecurities hold her back. There are scars on her heart from her first marriage – even from her childhood – that she’s not good enough, that she never will be enough, that she’s not destined for a happy ending.

And she doesn’t trust easily, she never has, but for Kara she wonders if she might perhaps be able to try. She wonders if maybe she should stop trying to fight what she wants, because for the first time in for as long as she can remember, Kara had brightened her world, made her heart lighter and her laugh easier, and maybe it wouldn’t destroy her if she just let _go_.

She still has her carefully-assembled list of reasons for why doing this would be a terrible idea – she thinks about them whenever she wakes from dreams haunted by Kara’s face, tries to remind herself that she’s doing the right thing, but she doesn’t know if she is anymore.

Maybe Kara can be more convincing than her doubtful mind, if Cat only gave her the chance to _try_.

And maybe this fake date might change into a real date, if they both treat it like one, and maybe tomorrow night could end up changing her life.

She just hopes that it’s for the better, and not for the worse.

x-x-x

“Mom?” Carter’s sprawled out on the bed behind her, reading his latest comic book and catching her up on his day at school whilst Cat gets ready for the gala, but she pauses in touching up the make-up she’d had done earlier at the questioning note in his voice. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course you can, sweetheart.” Cat turns to look at him over the back of the chair at her vanity, eyeliner still clutched in-between her index finger and her thumb.

“Are you and Kara… do you like her?” Cat’s too slow to blink away the surprise that flashes across her face at the question, Carter’s eyes watching her closely.

“Of course I like her, Carter.” She keeps her voice light, not answering the question she knows he’s _really_ asking. “We wouldn’t be going out tonight if I didn’t, would we?”

“I meant… Is this like a _real_ date? Or a friends date?” Cat purses her lips as she debates how to answer him – she knows he’d be overjoyed by the prospect of them getting involved, of having Kara around more often, but she also wants to protect him in-case this thing with Kara doesn’t end up going anywhere. “Because I really like Kara, and it seems like you do, too. I mean, you could have yelled at her a whole lot more for leaving her stuff in the hallway when you tripped over it, but you didn’t when you saw her and she’s like, really pretty and she makes you smile a lot and I think she likes you, too. So I was just - ”

“Take a breath, Carter.” He tends to ramble when he’s excited, or nervous, and his face is red enough to practically be glowing – he pauses to take an exaggerated breath, and Cat presses her lips together to hide her smile.

“I haven’t seen you go on a date with someone in a really long time.” His eyes turn shy, his teeth white against the skin of his bottom lip as he bites down on it, fingers fiddling with the pages of his comic. “And it seems like she makes you happy.” It’s eerily similar to James’ earlier words, and Cat wonders why everyone in her life seems to be conspiring against her. “And she makes me happy, too.”

It’s that last part that gets to Cat the most. In the past, on the rare occasions where she _had_ gone on a date, or more than one date, she hardly ever introduced them to her son. Most of them already knew that she was a mother – thought they already knew everything about her, and _that_ was one of the reasons Cat hated dating, because there was nothing worse than someone trying to tell her how much they knew about _her_ life experiences when she’d _lived through them_ – but they cared very little about the son that was the centre of her whole world.

In the eight years since the divorce, Cat has introduced two people to her son. Neither had taken the effort to get to know him or spend time with him beyond trying to appease her, and neither relationship had lasted very long afterwards.

But Kara… Kara had already shown that she was more than willing to spend time with Carter, already _did_. Cat has lost count of the number of hours the two of them have spent together, the effortless way with which Carter has welcomed her into his life, when he usually struggles so much to interact with new people.

Kara had won him over in less than five minutes without an ulterior motive, and Cat knows that there is no faster way to her heart than through her son, than by making an effort with him, and Kara has encouraged Carter more in the few months they’ve known one another than probably any other person in his entire life besides his mother.

“I do like her,” she admits quietly – it’s the first time she’s said it aloud, and she almost feels like a weight has been lifted from her chest. “ _But_ ,” she stresses as she watches excitement bloom behind his eyes. “Nothing’s official yet. And things can still change.” He nods seriously, looking far older than his thirteen years. “You’d really be okay with it, though? Kara and I?”

“Are you kidding?” He looks at her like she’s an idiot, and Cat supposes that she should have expected that response. “Of course I don’t care. It’d be awesome.”

Cat wonders if that’s enough – if Carter’s acceptance and her own growing feelings for the other woman are enough to weather the storm she’s sure will be thrown their way once they go public, to overcome the doubts that still swirl through her mind.

Carter goes back to his comic book, humming happily, and Cat continues to put the finishing touches to her hair and make-up before stepping into her closet to change into the dress she’d chosen for the occasion.

She’d sent Kara a snap of it earlier – it’s blood-red, designed to ensure that she’s the centre of attention, the hem dropping to her knees but with a killer slit up the thigh, off-the-shoulder to show off the slope of her collarbones and just the right amount of cleavage – and told her to wear something that didn’t clash.

Black heels and a blazer complete the outfit, and she herds Carter out of her room and to where Ella sits waiting in the living room for him just as there’s a tentative knock on the front door.

“I’ll get it!” Carter yells before he’s bounding forward, Cat on his heels, though her step falters when she gets a glimpse of Kara on the other side.

She’s seen her dressed to impress before, at the gallery opening but oh, that was nothing compared to this. The dress is a deep midnight blue, skin tight from her chest to her hips, where it flares out slightly and stops mid-thigh, and the plunging neckline makes Cat’s mouth water. She’s got her hair down – a rarity, because it’s usually scraped back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face whilst she’s working – curling around her shoulders in loose waves.

Kara Danvers is a vision, and Cat can scarcely believe that a goddess like this could really want _her_.

“Hi Kara!” Carter chirps whilst Cat is remembering how to breathe, and then she forgets all over again when she sees the dazzling smile that Kara directs Carter’s way, her heart beating unsteadily in her chest.

“Hey, kid.” Her voice is warm, and then she looks over Carter’s shoulder to see Cat hovering in the hallway behind him and Cat is pleased to notice the way her eyes widen at the sight of her, throat bobbing as she swallows. “Wow,” she breathes, and then her cheeks flush as she realises what she’s said, clearing her throat loudly. “Um, I mean, you look nice.”

“As do you.” That’s an understatement, and she allows her eyes to linger appreciatively at the skin exposed by the neckline of Kara’s dress to let Kara know exactly how _nice_ she thinks it is. “You be good for Ella, okay?” She directs at Carter as she snatches up her purse from the counter along with her keys.

“I will, Mom,” he replies with a roll of his eyes, and she smiles softly and pulls him into a hug, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“Call me if you need anything?” She asks Ella, who had risen to see them go and stands behind her – she nods and Cat feels a flash of gratitude that she’d managed to find someone who was as good with Carter as her, who was willing to put up with Cat’s crazy, hectic schedule. “I’ll see you in the morning then, sweetheart. Goodnight.”

“Have fun.” He grins innocently when Cat narrows her eyes towards him before he waves. “Night Mom! Bye, Kara!”

“See ya, Carter.” Cat shuts the door on his gleeful face, and pauses Kara with a hand on her arm when she turns towards the elevators – Kara’s skin is warm beneath her fingertips, and Cat is slow to move away when Kara glances down at her hand curiously.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” She asks when Kara’s eyes finally meet her own, her voice coming out smaller than she intended. “My mother… she won’t be happy about this.” Another understatement – she’s probably going to kill her, and Cat’s both exhilarated by the thought of her reaction and terrified. “And she… well, she has a way with words.”

“I can handle it,” Kara shrugs, but Cat worries at her bottom lip as she wonders if she really can – Kara seems so soft and so young, so bright and so trusting, and Cat wonders if maybe five minutes around Katherine Grant might be enough to break her.

“And there’ll be a lot of photographers, and journalists there… are you sure you’re prepared to be splashed on the front pages tomorrow morning? For the things they might say?”

Cat is – she’d had nightmares about it the night before, her own fears manifesting in the form of front page stories that had called her every name under the sun.

“Cat,” Kara says with a heavy sigh, her lips turning down at the corners and her eyes losing some of their warmth. “If this is your way of saying that _you_ don’t want to do this, that you don’t want me to come with you, then just say it outright. Don’t try and make it my decision.”

“No!” Cat reaches for her arm again, fingers wrapping around her wrist and squeezing gently as Kara starts to look away. “That’s not… that’s not what I’m doing.” Cat never stumbles over her words, never has to search this hard for the right ones, but Kara seems to derail her with so very little effort at all. “I just… I want you to be prepared. I want you to know what you’re signing up for.” She looks away from Kara’s eyes as she says it, pretending she’s glancing at her watch, instead, and she lets out a surprised gasp when she feels a gentle finger pressing against her chin, tilting her head up.

“I know what I’m signing up for,” Kara tells her, voice filled with certainty as she holds Cat’s gaze, her touch burning against Cat’s skin, and she’s so earnest and so _wonderful_ and it makes Cat _ache_. “I don’t care what your mother says to me and I don’t read the tabloids so I don’t give a flying fuck what they have to say about me – about _us_ – either.”

“You don’t even read my tabloid?” Cat can’t help but ask, more than a little offended, and Kara gives a little laugh as she drops her hand away from Cat’s face. “Maybe I should rethink this date idea, after all.”

“It’s not a real date, though, is it?” Kara’s voice is light, but her eyes are dark, and Cat feels her heart clench, knowing that she’s the cause. “So it doesn’t matter.” Kara is moving away before Cat has the chance to admit that perhaps she might _want_ it to be real, tugging her arm from Cat’s grip and making her way down the hall, and Cat follows quickly in her wake.

Kara is quiet on the ride down, doesn’t say a word until they’re in the back of one of Cat’s town cars, driver taking them downtown towards where the gala is being held.

“What are the ground rules for tonight?” She asks quietly, gaze focused out the window, watching the city flash by – Cat is distracted, for a long moment, by the way the streetlights cast long, beautiful shadows across the planes of her face.

“Ground rules?” Cat asks when Kara turns to face her, feigning a misunderstanding for the reason it had taken her so long to reply.

“Yeah, like,” Kara lifts her shoulders in a shrug, “how do you want to act? Touching, hand-holding, things like that.”

“Oh.” Cat blinks at the question, because it isn’t something she’d thought about in a great deal of detail. “PDA is a no-go, period.” Kara nods, a serious expression on her face as though she’s studying for an important exam. “But I think I can allow for hand-holding.”

She’ll probably need something to hold onto in order to survive whatever her mother tries to throw at them.

“Okay.” Kara falls silent once more, turning back to look outside the tinted window, and giving Cat another chance to admire her date – she almost, almost wants to reach out and check that Kara is actually real, that she’s actually here, by her side, because she _wants_ to be.

Cat hears Kara breath catch when the car pulls up to the curb outside their destination when she sees the number of photographers milling around on the pavement outside, and Cat reaches into the space between them to take her hand and squeezes gently.

“Still sure about this?” She has to ask, because there’s a hint of trepidation on Kara’s face, and Cat loathes to think that she might be making her uncomfortable. “Because we can still turn around and go home.”

“Won’t your mother be upset?”

“She’ll be upset either way,” Cat murmurs with a humourless smile. “And I wasn’t lying to you at the gallery opening – I really do hate things like these. Although I’m fairly certain you’ll make the night more entertaining than any of my previous dates ever have.”

“And why’s that?” Kara asks, turning to face her, a quiet curiosity in her eyes, and there’s a strand of hair across her cheek, sticking to her lipstick, and Cat aches to reach up and push it away.

So she does – and oh, Kara’s breath trembles as Cat’s fingertips brush against the soft skin of her cheek, gripping Cat’s other hand, fingers still tangled with her own, so tightly that it almost hurts.

“Because you fascinate me,” Cat tells her, voice quiet in the heavy silence in the back of the car, the only sound that of Kara’s stuttered breathing as Cat tucks her hair behind her ears and ghosts her fingers down across her cheek as she lets her hand drop back down to her side, still clasping Kara’s with her other. “You’re always surprising me – which isn’t an easy task.” Kara’s lips twitch into a small smile, her eyes soft, and Cat feels drunk on the way Kara looks at her in moments like this, like Cat could be her everything. “And you’re a hell of a lot easier on the eyes, too.”

“I don’t understand you, Cat.” Cat can see Kara’s pulse racing in her neck, longs to dip her head and press her mouth against Kara’s skin, feel it pulsing beneath her lips – she forces her gaze away to meet Kara’s guarded, curious eyes. “One minute you’re telling me you think I’m pretty and that I fascinate you and then I try and kiss you and you tell me that none of it means anything.”

Cat isn’t used to being challenged, to having her behaviour questioned – she runs an empire, and her legion of employees will do whatever she says, without question, without _thought_ , and god, it’s exhilarating to have someone look at her with fire in their eyes, without flinching under the weight of Cat’s gaze, though Cat can see Kara’s nerves in the set of her shoulders and the way she taps the fingers of her left hand against the leather seat.

“I… may have been a little rash with that decision,” Cat admits quietly, unable to quite look Kara in the eye – she focuses on the sharp lines of her collarbones, instead, though that makes her think about dipping her tongue into the hollows there and she’s not sure that’s helping things.

“What?” There’s enough surprise in Kara’s voice for Cat to lift her head. She finds wide eyes staring back at her, and Cat realises that Kara had never expected Cat to reply.

“You heard me.” She squeezes Kara’s hand a little tighter, tries to draw strength from her solid grip, her heart beating quickly in her chest and Cat Grant does not get _nervous_ goddammit but she sure as hell feels it right now. “I regret it. Pushing you away.”

“But why - ”

“Um, Miss Grant?” The sound of the intercom and her driver’s voice makes the both of them jump, Cat having been so focused on Kara that she’d completely forgotten where they are. “I don’t want to rush you, but if we’re here for any longer…” He trails off, and Cat sighs – she supposes they probably have been out here long enough, should go inside and face the music.

“Later?” She asks Kara, because she wants a chance to explain herself, wants the opportunity for Kara to hear her out and give her a chance, and she’s almost tempted to tell Stephen to take them back to the apartment complex so they could talk the night away, instead.

“Okay,” Kara agrees with a small nod, but there’s still some anxiety swimming in her eyes and Cat can’t help but dip forward and press a gentle kiss against the side of Kara’s cheek – it makes her lips tingle, and Kara’s breath hitches and Cat lets the kiss linger for one long moment before pulling away.

“Shall we?” She asks as she curls her free hand, the one Kara’s not clutching like it’s her lifeline, around the door handle, and she waits for Kara’s nod before she pulls it open and tugs Kara out along with her.

There’s a flurry of flashes, several people shouting Cat’s name but she ignores them as she leads Kara towards the doors, and she’s pretty sure that Kara only breathes once they’re safely inside the building – Cat refrains from telling her that they haven’t hit the real danger, yet.

That will come when they’re inside and Katherine Grant’s sharp eyes find them from across the room.

“You okay?” Cat asks before they step into the immaculate ballroom, fingers still tangled with Kara’s, and Kara nods and squeezes tighter.

“I will be just as long as you don’t let go of me,” Kara replies quietly, gaze flicking around them nervously – there are already a few curious eyes on them, from the few people that are loitering on the outskirts of the room, and Cat staunchly ignores them all. “You’re not the only one who hates things like these, remember?”

“I won’t,” Cat promises, running her thumb along the back of Kara’s hand. “Unless you tell me to.”

“No chance of that happening anytime soon,” Kara tells her, and then she’s ducking her head shyly and pressing her own kiss against Cat’s cheek. Green eyes flutter closed and Cat lets out a long, slow breath and wishes Kara’s kiss had brushed her lips, instead. “Sorry,” Kara’s murmuring then, breath stirring Cat’s hair as she leans back. “I know that was against the rules.”

“I think I’ll make an allowance for you,” Cat replies, because she thinks, for Kara, she always will. “Now, ready to face the wolves?” Cat inclines her head towards the open doors, and several people hastily look away to avoid the glare she directs their way.

“As I’ll ever be,” Kara murmurs, and Cat leads them into the ballroom, fingers still tangled with Kara’s. She hates the falseness of events like these, the people that will smile and kiss her cheek and pretend that they’re the best of friends and yet are plotting her downfall behind closed doors, but Cat has no choice but to play her part in the whole charade.

She’s as charismatic as she can stand as she’s approached by several other partygoers, Kara quiet at her side, and Cat ensures that she doesn’t spend too much time with a single person lest the both of them get too bored.

It’s as Perry White is walking away from them that Cat catches her mother’s eye – Katherine takes one look at her, eyes dipping to take in Cat and Kara’s clasped hands, and then her lips are curling into a sneer and she’s stalking towards them with quick, angry steps.

“Kitty!” She calls, when Cat’s courage begins to fail her and she turns away towards the exit, her mother’s voice stopping her in her tracks, and she squeezes Kara’s hand so tightly that she fears for a moment that she may be cutting off her circulation. “What the hell is this?” She hisses when she’s close enough for Cat to hear her whisper, though there’s a fake smile on her mouth like everything’s fine and god, Cat _hates_ her, sometimes.

Most of the time.

“You told me to bring a date,” Cat answers coolly, not withering under the strength of Katherine’s fierce glare. “So I did. This is Kara.” She tugs Kara a step closer, glances at her to see her offer Katherine a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.

“This is ridiculous,” Katherine scoffs, hands resting on her hips. “How old is she, twenty? Is she even out of college?” Cat stiffens at her mother’s words, and Kara draws her thumb over the back of her hand comfortingly. “How much is she paying you to do this, dear?” Katherine turns her attention to Kara, arching a questioning eyebrow and Cat wants to step in-front of Kara and shield her from the anger and the cruel callousness that Cat had suffered through growing up. “How much, to get a rise out of me? Because I can assure you, it’s not enough.”

“She isn’t paying me a thing.” Kara takes a step forward so that she’s practically toe-to-toe with Katherine, angling herself that Cat’s half-hidden by her shoulder – she’s got her jaw tilted upright in defiance and there’s a look of determination in those baby blues mixed with some anger, too, and oh, she’s breathtaking.

She’s a vision, and Cat can scarcely believe that she’s on her arm.

“You must be getting _something_ out of this little… arrangement.” Katherine’s lip curls at the word, her glare poisonous, and Cat wishes she were strong enough to meet it head on. “So, what is it? The money?”

“I have my own money.” Katherine gives a derisive little laugh, and Cat takes a step so that she’s at Kara’s shoulder, bare shoulders brushing together.

“More than enough of it, considering we met when she moved in across the hall,” Cat tells her mother, watching the way her eyebrows rise slightly in surprise. “I know it shocks you that anyone could possibly want to be with me for something other than my money,” she hears Kara let out an almost pained gasp at the word, her hand squeezing Cat’s tightly, “but amazingly, it can happen. So if you’ll excuse us, Kara and I have people to talk to that aren’t as judgemental as _you_.”

She spits it with as much venom as she can manage – she’s never been very good at standing up to Katherine Grant, no matter how barbed the words, how hurtful the insults. When she was younger she’d simply ignored them, and when she was older she’d avoided her mother at all costs so that she didn’t have the chance to hear them.

But here, with Kara’s hand in hers, with Kara _defending_ Cat to her mother, to the one woman who never fails to get under Cat’s skin, no matter how desperately she tries to keep her out, Cat finds the strength to stand up for herself and walk away.

That strength fails her the second they’re out of Katherine’s eyesight, her shoulders sagging and breath catching as she sucks in a desperate lungful of air.

“You okay?” Kara asks quietly, once they’re out of the main crowd and off towards once side of the room, her eyes filled with concern as she peers down at Cat. “That was… intense. She’s kind of a bitch.” Cat’s lips twitch, some of her unease lessening with Kara’s soft gaze on her face.

“That’s quite the understatement,” she murmurs in reply. “Thank you. For defending me.”

“Are you kidding?” Kara looks surprised that Cat even has to say it – but then, how can she possibly know that no-one, not even Cat’s father, has ever stood up to Katherine Grant on behalf of her daughter?

It’s just another thing in the rapidly growing list of things that Kara does to surprise her; things that make Cat fall for her a little harder.

“The things she was saying about you…” Kara continues, oblivious to Cat looking up at her with some awe in her eyes. “As if the only reason I’d be here with you is if you paid me.” She scoffs, and Cat forces a tight smile as if she thinks it’s ridiculous, too – even though there’s a part of her that’s still marvelling that Kara had ever actually agreed to this in the first place. “Wait,” Kara says then, noticing the look on Cat’s face, expression scrunching up into an adorable frown. “You don’t actually believe that, do you? Because - ”

“I don’t know about you,” Cat cuts her off, because she doesn’t want to talk about this now – doesn’t want to air her insecurities in the middle of a crowded hall, surrounded by a number of prying ears and eyes, “but after that little encounter I’m desperate for a drink, fancy a trip to the bar?”

Kara looks at her for one long moment, like she’s going to press, like she’s going to ignore Cat’s desire to brush this away, but then she watches Kara heave out a tiny sigh before she nods, and Cat wonders if they’ll be revisiting this conversation later.

“Bourbon?” Is all she asks, and when Cat nods she disappears before Cat can even offer to go with her.

Cat feels curiously empty, the second that Kara lets go of her hand.

Which is ridiculous, she knows.

She’s approached by a business guy in a suit almost the second that Kara’s out of her sight, and Cat grits her teeth and smiles politely as he introduces himself, unable to slip away like she normally would lest Kara lose her in the crowd.

“Kitty!” She doesn’t expect Lois Lane to be her saviour, and even though the sound of that voice saying the nickname she despises sets her teeth on edge, Cat still turns away from Mr Boring and towards Lois, plastering a fake smile on her face that she knows the other woman can see straight through. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Cat sniffs, lips curling into an expression of disdain as she takes the other woman in – she looks fabulous, like she always does, and Cat hates her for it, hates the rush of emotion that seeing her always brings up in her, the sense of loss when she thinks about what had happened between them at the Daily Planet, all those years ago.

The past may be in the past, but Cat has never quite been able to put Lois Lane behind her.

“Oh, come on.” Lois steps closer, and Cat has to wonder why she’s even approaching her at all – they see each other often at events like these, but rarely exchange words. Cat’s are too pointed and barbed, and Lois is perhaps the only other person, save for her mother, sharp enough to keep up. “Don’t be like that.”

“Like what? Completely disinterested?” Lois’ lips twitch, and Cat rolls her eyes, annoyed. “Sorry, no can do.” She feels a flash of relief when she spots Kara making her way back over towards her, glass of bourbon in one hand and white wine in the other.

“You look good,” Lois tells her as Kara comes closer, expression of deep concentration on her face as she tries desperately to dodge the people around her without spilling their drinks.

It’s entirely too adorable for Cat’s liking.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Cat replies staunchly, and then Kara is at her elbow and Cat relaxes a little as her drink is extended towards her.

“I got hit on by like three different people whilst waiting in line,” she says, clearly disgruntled and completely oblivious to the fact that Cat has company, “this place is crawling with cree - ” Kara cuts off abruptly as she notices who’s standing before them, and then her eyes widen before a smile crosses her face, and Kara blinks at her in surprise. “Lois?!”

“Kara?” Lois is looking between the two of them, a frown appearing between her eyebrows that deepens with every passing second. “You two know each other?”

“ _You_ two know each other?” Cat counters, because there’s a familiarity in Kara’s gaze that Cat isn’t sure she appreciates one bit.

“Yeah, Lois is married to my cousin,” Kara explains with an easy smile, not yet noticing the tension between the two women – Cat vaguely remembers a mop of brown hair, and eyes the same blue as Kara’s hidden behind a pair of dark-rimmed glasses, and some understanding dawns. “Clark. Is he here?”

“No, he couldn’t make it tonight,” Lois answers, still looking between Cat and Kara warily. “I didn’t realise you were a regular at things like this.”

“Oh, I’m not,” Kara replies as Cat very deliberately reaches out to place her hand at the small of Kara’s back as she lifts her bourbon to her lips, savouring both the taste of it and the look on Lois’ face as she follows the movement of Cat’s hand with widening eyes. “I’m here as Cat’s date.”

“You two are… you’re _dating_?” Something sharpens in Kara’s eyes then, finally noticing that Cat and Lois aren’t exactly the best of friends, and she looks between the pair of them warily. “Seriously, Cat? She’s half your age, not to mention one of the sweetest people I know, and you’re the most - ”

“Hey,” Kara interrupts quietly, as Cat’s lips curl into a snarl and she takes a heavy step forward, hand dropping from Kara’s back to curl into a fist at her side. “I’m standing right here, and I can make my own decisions, thank you, Lois.” Kara reaches for Cat’s hand and unfurls her fingers, tangling them with her own instead and tugging Cat back a step.

“You don’t understand, Kara,” Lois insists, and Cat wants to throw the remainder of her drink over her head – but then, she supposes that would be a waste of perfectly good bourbon and Lois doesn’t deserve that.

Perhaps she can use Kara’s drink, instead – she’s sure it’s a cheap brand, because that was all the girl seemed to have in her apartment, Cat had been amused to note the last time she’d been in there.

“I understand just fine.” Kara’s voice is light, but there’s a darker undercurrent to the words and the way her eyes flash as she looks Lois straight in the eye. “I appreciate the concern, but it’s unnecessary. And if you could stop upsetting my date…” She trails off, and Lois looks like she wants to argue before she shakes her head and stalks away – Cat doubts that that’s going to be the last of _that_.

She wonders how long it will be before Kara gets a phone call from the cousin, before she listens to reason and walks away, and Cat wonders if she can bear it when she does.

“Hey.” Kara’s voice is filled with that quiet concern again, as she steps in-front of Cat and abandons her hold on Cat’s hand to tilt her chin up when Cat refuses to meet her gaze. “Look at me. I meant what I said before, okay – I don’t care what anyone has to say about this. About us.”

Cat feels tears spring into her eyes at the quiet determination with which Kara speaks because god, it shouldn’t be there. They shouldn’t have had eerily similar conversations with two very different women in the space of ten minutes about the reasons why they shouldn’t be doing this – reasons that Cat is already aware of, and she wonders if perhaps she’d been stupid to think that this thing could work out in spite of them.

“Maybe you should.” The words are quiet, but she can tell from the tiny frown that appears between Kara’s eyebrows, accentuating the scar on her forehead, that Kara heard them anyway. It’s the first time Cat has ever spoken any of her doubts aloud, but it doesn’t ease the weight of them on her chest.

“But I don’t.” Kara’s hand moves away from her chin to instead cup the side of her face, thumb brushing tenderly across her cheek, and Cat lets out a shaky breath against her palm, skin coming alive beneath the gentle touch. “I’m here with you because I want to be, and I don’t care what people have to say about that. I only care about what you think.”

Cat smiles a humourless smile, because how can she tell Kara that she thinks exactly what Katherine and Lois think, and a thousand more things that are worse? How can she let that foolish optimism that she sees in Kara’s eyes die, like it had that awful night when Cat had pushed her away?

“And maybe we can add that to the list of things we need to talk about later,” Kara murmurs when she sees Cat’s reluctance to answer her, and Cat manages a tiny nod. “But first…” Kara trails off and worries at her bottom lip with her teeth, and Cat realises what she’s going to do a second before she does it. “Let me show you just how little doubt I have about this.”

Her hand shifts to curl around the back of Cat’s neck, playing with the tiny strands of hair there and making her shiver as she ducks her head, and this time Cat doesn’t reach a hand between them to keep her at bay.

The kiss is brief, just the barest of touches of Kara’s lips against her own before she leans away, but it’s enough to make Cat’s heart sing and her lips tingle and she feels it all the way down to her toes. She thinks that she may have just become an addict, as Kara gazes down at her with soft, vulnerable eyes, and Cat is already craving her next fix, and she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to give this up.

She’s smiling when Kara pulls away, and the one she gets in return is radiant, makes her heart pound even faster as warmth floods through her chest.

She catches a glimpse of her mother over Kara’s shoulder, watching them with a look of horror on her face, and Cat’s happiness only grows, because she’d been right – getting to see her mother look like _that_ is more than worth it.


	8. Chapter 8

The second Kara’s lips brush against Cat’s, she knows she’s well and truly done for.

She feels like she’s flying, and the feeling only grows when she pulls away and finds Cat looking up at her with soft, gentle eyes.

“Sorry,” Kara murmurs, heart beating rapidly in her ears and fingers curling tighter around the back of Cat’s neck because god, she never wants to let her go. “There I go again,” she adds when Cat’s eyebrows scrunch into a small frown of confusion, “breaking all your rules.”

“You’re more than welcome to do it again and again,” Cat tells her, a little breathless, and Kara grins, knowing she’d love nothing more than to do just that, because now she _knows_ what kissing Cat Grant feels like, she wants to do it over and over again, wants to kiss Cat hot and dirty, dart her tongue past the seam of her lips to flick against the back of her teeth, wants to feel Cat panting against her mouth as she draws Kara closer with her hands curled in her hair.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Kara murmurs, brushing her thumb one last time against Cat’s cheek before dropping it back down to her side, and Cat’s smile is radiant and Kara wants to transfer it onto canvas so she never, ever forgets how she looks like this, soft and open and so beautiful that it makes Kara’s chest ache.

“I hope so,” Cat replies, and there’s a heat in her eyes that makes Kara’s throat go dry, and she wonders what they’re even _doing_ at this stupid gala in the first place when they could be making out behind the closed door of her apartment, instead.

Then again, she reminds herself, there wouldn’t _be_ any kissing if not for the stupid gala, so maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to curse it. She has no idea what had changed Cat’s mind but god, she’s so glad she did.

She’d almost regretted agreeing to be Cat’s date to this, because she knew it would be torture to be by her side but not _really_ , just a façade for the people around them, but the way Cat had looked at her when she’d first seen her dress earlier that night, the way she’d spoke of her regret in the back of the car… oh, it had almost made the pain of the last few days worth it.

And she knows they’re not in the clear yet – they still have so many things to talk about, and Kara knows that Cat is going to need some reassuring so that Katherine’s and Lois’ poisonous words don’t take root in her mind, but she thinks, for the first time since Cat had pressed a hand against her chest, that maybe there might be a chance for them, after all.

But this isn’t the time or the place for that conversation, Kara knows – they still have to survive the rest of the night, and from the deadly glares Katherine Grant is throwing them from across the room, Kara’s not entirely sure she will.

She’s almost tempted to kiss Cat again, open-mouthed and messy, _just_ to see that sour look on her face deepen because god, she deserves it.

She’s still reeling from the things that Katherine had said to Cat, to her own _daughter_ , even though Kara supposes she should have expected it, considering the stories Cat has told her about her mother. But she still hadn’t been prepared for it, hadn’t expected Katherine to outright ask Kara if she was just in it for the money, when Cat was worth so much more than that.

Cat was worth everything, and Kara just hopes that she can make Cat believe it.

“Want another drink?” She asks when Cat lifts her glass to her lips to down the remaining amber liquid – her tongue slides over her bottom lip to chase the last few drops, and Kara’s eyes follow the movement, transfixed as Cat’s lips curl into a smirk.

She doesn’t even blush at being caught, because Cat is _hot_ and she knows it.

“Sure.” Kara plucks the empty glass from between her fingers before she makes her way over to the bar, humming quietly to herself as she goes, feeling like she’s been on cloud nine ever since she’d felt the soft pressure of Cat’s lips against her own.

She supposes she should have expected Lois to appear out of nowhere, take her arm and pull her off to one side before she could reach the bar, and she sighs as Lois turns to face her with an incredulous look on her face.

“Cat Grant, Kara? Really?” Lois has been like an older sister to her ever since she and Clark had gotten together – she was good for him, made him light up in a way that Kara had rarely been lucky enough to see ever since their parents had passed away, and she’d welcomed Kara in with open arms.

She’s spent many weekends in the guest room of Lois and Clark’s place, but that doesn’t mean that she’s going to let the other woman talk her out of something she’s wanted since the moment she’d first laid eyes on Cat, tripping over her heels and into Kara’s waiting arms.

“Yeah, Lois, _really_.” She shrugs her arm out of the other woman’s grip and tightens her hold on the glass in her hand. “And it’s none of your business who I date, by the way.”

“It is when it’s _her_ ,” Lois hisses, casting a glance over Kara’s shoulder – she turns to see Cat watching them with narrowed eyes and sighs, because she does _not_ want all their progress tonight to be unravelled by Cat imagining the horrible things that Lois says to her. “Look, Kara - ”

“No,” Kara cuts her off with a shake of her head. “Whatever you’re going to say to me, I don’t wanna hear it, okay? I get that you’re looking out for me, I _do_ , but this… If it’s a mistake, then it’s mine to make, and you’re welcome to say ‘I told you so’, but for now can you just… let me happy? Please?” Lois chews on her bottom lip, looking unhappier than Kara has ever seen her, but she watches the resignation bloom in her eyes until she sighs.

“Okay, fine. I don’t want to push you away over this, just… be careful, okay? She’s not...” Lois trails off, glancing at Cat once again, a thoughtful look on her face. “She’s not a monster, that’s not what I’m trying to say. But she’s been burned in the past and she doesn’t trust easily and I just don’t… I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“What’s your history with her?” Kara asks, curiosity lacing her voice because Lois looks almost… regretful, as she tears her eyes away from Cat and back to Kara, a sad smile on her face.

“That’s not my story to tell,” she murmurs quietly, and Kara’s interest only increases. “But maybe Cat will tell you, if you ask her. I’m not proud of it.” She gives Cat one last, long look before she heaves out a sigh and flashes Kara one of her brightest smiles. “You’ll be careful?”

“I always am,” she replies, because Cat isn’t the only one who’s been burned, and when Lois pulls her into a hug she’s quick to wrap her arms around her waist and squeeze her back. “I miss you,” she murmurs as Lois leans back. “You should come visit more often.”

“Somehow I don’t think your new girlfriend would be too happy about that,” Lois replies with a smirk, and Kara rolls her eyes.

“She’s not my girlfriend yet,” she shrugs. “I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear.”

“I don’t want you to be miserable, Kara,” Lois tells her. “If she makes you happy… I can get behind it. Just. Be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lois grins and nudges Kara’s shoulder playfully before she lets her return to the bar – when Kara sees Katherine Grant making a beeline for her once she’s got Cat’s bourbon in hand, Kara quickly turns on her heel and melts back into the crowd, because she might have been able to stand up to Katherine before, with Cat at her side and looking so _lost_ , but she’s not sure she’ll have the courage alone, and the woman is absolutely _terrifying_.

She finds Cat where she left her, looking bored as she peers up at the face of some sleaze in a suit, and Kara tenses as she strides closer and hears what he’s saying.

“Come on, Cat.” He reaches one hand up towards Cat’s cheek, but she leans back with a look of such distaste on her face that it makes Kara smile. “Just one dance. For old time’s sake.” There’s a suggestive lilt to his voice that makes Kara’s blood run cold, her step faltering as she slows.

“Not interested, Max,” Cat sniffs, looking down at her phone – Kara’s blood boils when this _Max_ reaches for her chin to tilt her head back up, leaning closer, and she stomps the remaining few strides towards them, hand so tight around Cat’s drink that her arm shakes.

“I got your drink,” she says, loudly, as she reaches Cat, and a look of relief flashes across her face as she wrenches her head out of Max’s grip. “Everything okay here?” She’s not looking at Cat as she says it – instead she’s glaring at Max, who looks between her and Cat with interest.

“Is this your date?” He asks, positively gleeful, and Kara itches to reach out a hand and tug Cat closer, into her side, but she’s not sure how well it’ll be received so she balls her hand into a fist at her side, instead.

“I don’t really see how that’s any of your business, Max,” Cat replies coolly, not sparing him a glance as she smoothly takes her bourbon from Kara’s hand and lifts it to her lips, “but yes, she is. So run along.” She waves him away with one of those superfluous hand gestures that Kara’s noticed that Cat loves so much. “You’re neither needed nor wanted here.”

He grins but walks away, and Kara glares daggers at his back until he’s disappeared back into the sea of people.

“What did he mean?” She can’t help but ask, the words bursting from her lips without even thinking. “’For old time’s sake’? Did you used to date that guy?” Cat doesn’t answer her for a long moment, just looks up at her with an amused smile that makes Kara shift awkwardly as she waits to be put out of her misery.

“We went on a handful of dates, yes,” Cat says eventually, choosing her words carefully. “But it was never… He’s an asshole.” Kara’s lips twitch, because she couldn’t agree more with _that_ statement. “But a rather pretty one, so when he asked me out I didn’t say no. I didn’t sleep with him, though, if that’s what you’re really asking.”

“ _What_?” Kara is appalled. “That’s not – I wasn’t – it’s none of my _business_ if you did, anyway, so - ”

“Kara, darling,” Cat cuts off her stuttering with another amused quirk of her lips. “Calm down. I just wanted to see that look on your face.” Kara huffs, a tiny pout on her mouth, and when Cat leans up to brush it away with a kiss almost thoughtlessly, like she’s done it a thousand times before, her heart beats so fast it’s like it’s trying to escape her body. “Usually I’m not one for jealousy,” Cat murmurs when she leans away, as Kara’s looking down at her with wide, dark eyes, “but it looks rather good on you.”

“I wasn’t _jealous_.” Okay, maybe she was, just a little – because he’d gotten to go on a date with Cat and Kara was willing to bet that there hadn’t been anyone around questioning it, thinks that he would have definitely gotten Katherine Grant’s seal of approval.

“The glare you were giving him says otherwise,” Cat points out, smile on her mouth and in her eyes, and Kara huffs again.

“Because he had his hands _all_ over you.” She thinks about his palm cupping Cat’s cheek and feels another rush of anger. “And clearly can’t take no for an answer.” 

“I can handle Maxwell Lord, Kara, don’t worry.” A fierce look flashes over Cat’s face, and Kara doesn’t doubt that, despite her size, Cat can fight dirty when she needs to. “And I promise,” Cat murmurs then, her voice turning more serious, “that none of these boring corporate guys in a business suit can hold a candle to you – so trust me when I say there’s no need to be jealous of a single one of them.”

Kara wonders if she’s been that obvious, for Cat to be able to read her so easily, but then she reminds herself that she’s Cat Grant, investigative journalist, and she’s made her way reading people for a living.

“Same goes for you,” Kara replies, because there isn’t a single person in this room, in this city or hell, on this _earth_ that she’d rather be beside tonight, and Cat’s soft answering smile is enough to make her heart pound.

“I think,” Cat says as she glances over Kara’s shoulder to notice the double doors at the end of the room falling open, “that it’s almost time for dinner.”

“There’s food at this thing?” Cat smiles at her enthusiasm, takes her hand and tugs her through into the elaborate dining room – it’s more extravagant than anything Kara’s seen in a long, long while. “It’s gonna be really weird, fancy food isn’t it?” She whispers into Cat’s ear as she drags her over to their table, Cat pressing her lips together to hide her amusement.

“Well, it won’t be your usual greasy pizza or burger, no.”

“Hey, those are delicious.”

“As this will be.” Kara’s a little dubious about that, but she shrugs and decides to hold out judgement until food is actually served. She’s right, though – she’s presented with the tiniest portion of something she knows she’ll never be able to pronounce, and she stares at it warily for long enough to make Cat laugh quietly beside her.

She glances at Cat to see which of the extensive range of silverware that lies in-front of her she’s supposed to be using, and earns herself a raised eyebrow as Cat lifts her fork to her lips.

“Outside in, Kara, has no-one ever taught you that?”

“Growing up we used only one set of cutlery,” she replies quietly, spearing the mysterious pastry parcel on her plate with her fork – it’s not as bad as she expected, if a little small. “I’m not fancy enough to be in a place like this.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I am _not_. Gallery openings are all finger food and pretentious wines – this is a whole different ball game.”

“Well, luckily for you,” Cat murmurs, and Kara’s breath catches when she feels Cat’s thigh press against hers under the table, the heat of bare skin against bare skin making her pulse race, “I’m an excellent teacher. You’ll be a pro at these things soon enough.”

“Who says you’re ever getting me back in a place like this again?” She’s teasing, because despite her slight discomfort, it’d be worth it to see Cat dressed to the nines with her hand in Kara’s and that sparkle in her eyes.

“Oh, I can be _very_ persuasive.” She trails her fingertips up Kara’s thigh beneath the table, and Kara sucks in a sharp breath as she feels nails dig lightly into her skin, just beneath the hem, and her fork clatters out of her hand and onto the table, Cat’s lips pulling into a pleased smirk.

“I don’t doubt that,” she breathes in response, and Cat gives her thigh one last squeeze before pulling her hand away, but the damage has already been done – Kara’s skin is on fire, and she’s already imagining what it would feel like should Cat drag her fingertips higher, under the lace of her underwear and _god_ she should not be thinking about that right now.

Cat smirks like she knows exactly what’s on Kara’s mind, and she thinks that it’s only fair that she gets her own back.

So when the next course is delivered to their table, Kara surreptitiously drops her hand into her lap and, when Cat is distracted, pulled into conversation by someone else at their table, she reaches out and swipes a line from Cat’s knee to her upper thigh along the slit in her dress that Kara has been dreaming of running her tongue along ever since she’d seen it earlier that night.

Cat’s reaction wouldn’t be noticeable to someone who wasn’t looking for it, but Kara is – she sees the way her lips part, just slightly, her voice wavering a little as she speaks, and Kara feels taut muscle tense beneath her touch.

She amuses herself, whilst Cat and the others start to talk about business, by drawing aberrant patterns on the skin of Cat’s thigh with her fingertips, watching as Cat’s breathing grows laboured – she never pauses in her conversation though, and Kara’s curious about what it would take to get her to truly lose control.

She hopes that one day she’s lucky enough to find out.

When Cat turns to face her sometime later, her eyes are wide and dark and her pupils blown, and Kara swallows thickly at the look in them, at the way Cat looks at her like she wants to drown in her.

“Wanna get out of here?” She asks, her voice quiet and her mouth pressing close to Kara’s ear.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Cat smiles and excuses them, taking Kara’s hand and practically dragging her outside as she calls for her driver to come and pick them up. Kara expects them to wait in the lobby, because the night is dark and cold, and she’s surprised when instead Cat marches them straight out the front doors.

The photographers from before are long gone, the street outside empty and still, and Kara raises an eyebrow when Cat tugs her off to one side, around the side of the building to where the streetlights don’t shine, and Cat presses her back against the cool brick wall with a hand on her chest and smothers her gasp of surprise with a kiss that’s molten fire.

Kara reaches for Cat’s hips as Cat’s tangle in her hair, tugging her closer as she tilts her head and parts her lips for Cat’s searching tongue, groaning when she feels blunt nails drag across her scalp and oh, kissing Cat Grant might just be the greatest high Kara has ever experienced and she never wants it to _end_.

Cat feels dainty, almost fragile, in Kara’s hands, but her kisses are anything but – her teeth nip sharply at Kara’s bottom lip, taking it with her as she pulls away, and Kara can’t help but moan at the look in Cat’s eyes as she stares up at her, heated and _hungry_ and setting her pulse racing, an ache building between her thighs.

“What was that for?” She asks, breathless, as Cat leans back and runs her tongue along her bottom lip like she’s savouring the taste of Kara lingering on her mouth, and her smile is as wicked as the look in her eyes as she trails a single fingertip down and around the plunging neckline of Kara’s dress.

“Payback,” is the murmured reply, Cat taking a deliberate step back and Kara’s hands falling back down to her sides, “for that little stunt under the table.”

“You started it,” Kara protests, though internally she’s doing anything but – if she gets kissed like _that_ as a punishment, she’s going to be letting her hands wander more often.

“Not the point,” Cat shoots over her shoulder as she begins to stroll towards the car that’s just pulled up to the curb; it takes Kara several moments before she can move to follow her on shaky legs, pulse still thundering loud in her ears.

Cat’s still smirking by the time that Kara’s sliding into the back of the car next to her, and there’s a part of her that wants to close the space between them and kiss it from her mouth – but they still need to talk about whatever this is, still have some things they need to sort between them, and kissing Cat senseless probably isn’t going to help them get started.

So she knots her hands in her lap to keep from reaching out and tries to get her breathing back under control.

When her stomach rumbles as the car is peeling away from the curb Cat turns to her with a raised eyebrow, lips quirking upwards in amusement.

“Still hungry?” She asks, barely concealed laughter in her voice, and Kara makes a face.

“Maybe. Those portions were tiny. I’ll just order a pizza or something later,” she shrugs, but Cat’s expression turns thoughtful.

“Nonsense, we’ll stop somewhere on the way.”

“Oh, no you don’t have to do that - ” But Cat is already pressing on the intercom to speak to the driver, and Kara feels a flash of gratitude because yeah, okay, she’s kind of starving.

“Stephen?”

“Yes, Miss Grant?” Comes the immediate reply, as Kara eyes Cat warily.

“Could we make a stop on the way back to the apartment, please? To…” She trails off and glances meaningfully at Kara.

“I’m not fussy,” she tells her, and Cat rolls her eyes like _of course_ she should have expected that answer.

“Whatever greasy fast food place is nearest.”

“Of course, Miss Grant.”

“Thank you,” Kara murmurs as the car turns around a corner, and Cat merely shrugs, a small smile playing on the edges of her lips.

“It’s only fair, considering I dragged you out here in the first place.”

“I was more than willing to come.” Kara orders a burger and some fries when the car pulls up to a drivethru – Kara is absolutely certain that Cat’s car has never made a stop like this before, and it makes her grin as she gets started on the food, being careful not to drop anything on the leather seats.

“I don’t know how you can eat like this and still look like _that_.” Cat’s eyes linger on Kara’s stomach and the abs hiding beneath her dress as Kara presses three fries into her mouth.

“I work out.”

“Clearly.” Cat’s eyes turn heated, and Kara gulps as her gaze traces back up to Kara’s mouth, feels the heat of it like it’s a tangible thing.

“Want one?” She offers the fries towards Cat, just so she can see her lip curl in distaste, grins around her next mouthful of burger.

“I did not get this body by stuffing it full of rubbish.” Kara allows her own eyes to wander, from that distracting slit on Cat’s thigh and up and up, over slim hips and the hint of cleavage revealed by the cut of the dress, the sharp line of Cat’s collarbones and the tendons in her neck that Kara longs to trace her tongue over.

“I’ll help you work it off.” She bites her lip as she says it, sure her own eyes are dark, Cat’s kiss still lingering on her lips, and the smirk that’s directed her way is sinful and makes her mouth go dry.

“Well, when you put it like that…” Kara grins as Cat reaches delicately for one of the fries, feeling a flash of victory as she lifts it to her lips and eats it delicately as Kara finishes off her remaining food and stuffs the wrappers back into the bag.

Cat takes it from her and stuffs it neatly into the trashcan underneath one of the seats, and when the car pulls up outside their apartment complex they slide out of the car together, Cat’s hand finding hers yet again like she can barely stand to let her go as she leads her towards the lobby.

“Invite me in,” she murmurs when they’re outside Kara’s door, her shoulder leaning against the wall behind her, and Kara can’t help but let her eyes flit to Cat’s door.

“What about Carter?”

“He’ll be asleep, and Ella will be okay for another few minutes. And you and I have some things to discuss.” Kara smiles softly as she nods, sliding her key into the lock and letting them both inside.

Her apartment is still bare, and she hovers nervously at the back of the couch, leaning back against it as Cat shuts the door quietly behind her and moves to stand beside her with quick, steady steps. The air between them seems charged, somehow, and Kara knows that they’re standing on the edge of something, the _beginning_ of something, and the thought makes her heart race triple time in her chest, because she doesn’t want to mess this up.

“This…” Cat starts, looking up at Kara with wide, vulnerable eyes, “you and me… It’s a bad idea, Kara.” She sounds so _sure_ of it, and Kara remembers the look in her eyes when Katherine had been spitting her poisonous words, when Lois had been shocked by the thought of them together, and knows that Cat believes every single damn thing they’d both said, and it makes her blood boil.

“Why?”

“Because I… you’re so young.” She ghosts her fingertips up from Kara’s wrist to her elbow before heaving a sigh and letting her arm drop onto the back of the couch, curling her fingers into the leather. “And you’re so many other things that I’m not. I don’t have anything to offer you, Kara. You deserve so much more than I have to give.”

“All I want is you.” She takes a step closer so that they’re flush together, reaches down to cup the side of Cat’s cheek like she had before she’d kissed her the first time and runs her thumb along her jawline.

“You shouldn’t,” Cat breathes, eyes fluttering closed as Kara’s fingertips stroke against her skin. “You could do so much better than me.”

“I really don’t think I could,” she argues softly, looking down at Cat with determined eyes when hers open again. “How could I possibly do better than the most powerful person in National City? The most kind-hearted – even if you don’t let the world see it, _I’ve_ seen it and I know it’s there – loving and beautiful person I’ve maybe ever met?” She watches Cat’s eyes fill with tears and can’t help but wonder if anyone has ever held her like this, told her things like this, because she looks like she can scarcely believe Kara’s words and it breaks her heart. “If anything, I don’t know what you could possibly see in me.”

“Are you kidding?” Cat’s hands reach for her, settle heavy on her hips and Kara lets out a heavy breath. “What’s there not to see in you? You’re amazing,” she breathes the word with reverence, looking up at Kara with wondering eyes. “And you could have anyone in the entire city and I don’t know why you’d ever want someone as old and bitter as me.”

“Because you make me smile,” Kara tells her softly, brushing her thumb against Cat’s bottom lip gently. “You make my days brighter, and you and Carter… you’ve made me so happy over the past few weeks.” Cat’s eyes soften at the mention of her son, her hands tightening their hold, and Kara lets out a quiet sigh. “You might not think that you’re good enough for me, but _I_ do. I _want_ you, and I think you want me, too.” Cat’s fingers flex, dragging her a tiny bit closer, and Kara tilts her head up, leans down so that her next words are breathed against Cat’s lips. “And isn’t that all that matters?”

“I don’t want to ruin you.” It’s barely a whisper, the words pained and Kara knows that Cat’s eyes will be, too, and it makes her ache.

“Then don’t,” she murmurs before she tangles her fingers in Cat’s hair and draws her into a kiss. It’s chaste, at first – but then Cat chases her mouth when she leans back, pushing Kara against the back of the couch as her tongue dips into her mouth, and Kara groans when a thigh falls between her legs, pinning her in place.

“I’m not an easy person to be with,” Cat says when they part, resting her forehead against Kara’s, breath ghosting across her lips. “Everyone who’s ever loved me… I’ve driven them all away.” Her voice breaks, and hands are fisted in the material of Kara’s shirt like she’s scared to let her go.

“You tried to drive me away,” Kara reminds her gently, and when her eyes flicker open the vulnerability in Cat’s gaze takes her breath away. “But I’m still here. And I’m not going anywhere, Cat, not if you don’t want me too. Relationships are never easy – they’re messy and they’re hard and sometimes they end in flames but that’s… that’s no reason not to _try_. Not if it’s something we both want.”

“What if you change your mind?”

“I won’t.” She presses another kiss against Cat’s lips. “I won’t.” They stand there for several long, heavy moments, breath mingling in the air between them, before Cat nods to herself and pulls away.

“Carter and I… I try and take at least one Saturday off a month, no work, so that I can spend some time with my son.” Kara feels herself frowning at the words, not quite understanding where Cat is going with this. “This weekend we’re going to the zoo. Perhaps you’d like to come with us?”

“I don’t want to intrude on your time with him.”

“You’re not,” Cat answers immediately with a small shake of her head. “If we’re going to do this, then… you need to spend time with Carter, too. He is the most important person in my life, after all. And he’d be overjoyed with the thought of spending the day with you, I know it. You don’t have to say yes, though - ”

“I’d love to.” She smiles warmly, because the thought of getting to spend more time with Cat – and with Carter – fills her with happiness.

“Really?”

“Mhm. Just let me know where and when, and I’ll be there.” Cat’s eyes sparkle, and Kara can’t resist tugging her into another kiss – she doesn’t think she’ll ever tire of the feeling of Cat’s lips moving against her own, of the soft sighs that echo into Kara’s mouth. “And you have to let me take you on a proper date sometime.”

“I’ll think about it,” Cat teases, breathless against Kara’s lips, and she grins. “But right now I should probably go and rescue Ella, because if you kiss me one more time I don’t know how I’m going to fight the urge to drag you into your bed.”

Kara’s mouth goes dry at just the thought, and at the dark look in Cat’s eyes, swallows thickly and feels her heart pounding in her chest.

“Goodnight, Kara.” She murmurs before Kara can make her brain form the words to reply, and she brushes her lips against Kara’s cheek before she’s sauntering away, and Kara only barely manages to keep herself from following in her wake.

“Night, Cat.”

x-x-x

“Go away,” Kara grumbles the next morning when she hears her bedroom door creaking open at an ungodly hour of the morning – one of the benefits of having her own studio in her home meant that she could work whatever hours she wanted, and that was usually late into the night so that she could sleep early mornings away.

Alex, however, has no such luxury, and Kara had recognised the light footfall of her sister coming from down the hall after the sound of a key in a lock had woken her from the rather lovely dream she’d been having about Cat.

“Oh, come on, Kara.” Alex shuts her bedroom door behind her and approaches the bed, and Kara groans when she feels the mattress dip beside her as Alex climbs in. “I just wanna hear about your date.” Kara doesn’t answer, just burrows further into her sheets and turns her head further into the pillow that still smells faintly of Cat’s perfume, willing Alex away. “I brought you coffee,” she continues, voice light. “And a bearclaw or three.”

“You brought me bearclaws?” Kara asks, turning her head and peeking one eye open to see if her sister is telling the truth – she waves a crumpled paper bag in Kara’s face, but snatches it away when Kara lunges for it.

“Ah, ah,” Alex murmurs as she leans away from Kara’s flailing arm, “date details first. _Then_ you get the pastries.”

“But I need the energy,” Kara protests, both eyes open now as she rolls to face her sister, who rolls her eyes but relents, fishing one of the bearclaws out of the bag and handing it over to Kara, who grins and shuffles so that she’s sat with her back against the headboard before lifting the pastry to her lips.

“Kara!” Alex whines when Kara spends too much time eating and not enough time talking. “What happened last night? Do I need to go over there and kick her ass, or did you work everything out?”

“We worked everything out,” Kara murmurs eventually, after the bearclaw has been demolished and she’s licking the remaining sugar from her fingers, and in the bright light of day, she can scarcely believe that last night actually happened, that it wasn’t just a dream. “And we’re gonna try the whole dating thing. So there is no need for ass-kicking of any kind.”

“There will be if she hurts you again,” Alex says, a clear warning in her voice, but her eyes are bright and there’s a soft smile on her lips. “I’m happy for you, Kara. You deserve it.”

“Thank you.”

“Just don’t forget about your poor old sister when you’re all loved up, alright?”

“As if you’d ever _let_ that happen,” Kara replies with a wry shake of her head, and Alex nudges her shoulder with her own as she hands Kara the rest of her pastries.

“When do I get to meet her?”

“Uh, you already _have_ ,” Kara points out as she reaches around Alex for the coffee she’d also brought, sighing happily when the scalding liquid hits her tongue – it makes the thought of getting out of bed at this early hour slightly more bearable.

“Well, yeah, but not _properly_. Not as your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kara points out, because they haven’t exactly discussed the finer details of whatever is brewing between them, yet, and Kara is more than okay with that – she wants to do this right, and part of that means taking it slow.

“Whatever,” Alex dismisses her with a wave of her hand. “She will be soon.”

“It’s still early,” Kara protests, because Alex has that glint in her eye that means she’s not letting this go anytime soon. “And I don’t want you to scare her away with your protective big sister talk.”

“I’m not _that_ bad.”

“It took two months before my last girlfriend could be alone in a room with you,” Kara points out, and Alex smiles happily to herself, making her roll her eyes towards the ceiling.

“I feel like Cat Grant isn’t going to be so easily intimidated.”

“Probably not,” Kara concedes, because she thinks that Cat could give as good as Alex has got. But she doesn’t need any lingering insecurities to rush back to the surface, either, and she feels like pushing Cat into meeting her family too soon will do just that, _especially_ with how protective Alex can be, sometimes. “But still.” Alex pouts, and Kara heaves out a sigh. “You will meet her, okay? Just… not yet. Not so soon.”

“ _Fine_ ,” she huffs, but Kara knows there’s little malice behind it. “When’s your next big date?”

“Saturday. Well, it’s not really a date, I guess – she’s taking Carter to the zoo and she asked me to come along.”

“A date involving the kid already?” Alex whistles. “That’s a pretty big step.”

“No,” Kara protests with a shake of her head, “it’s not, because I’ve already _met_ the kid. In fact, I’ve probably spent more time with him than with Cat, come to think of it.”

“And you’re sure about this? Dating a woman with a kid? Cause that’s not… it’s not something you should do lightly, Kara.”

“You really think I haven’t thought about that?” She levels Alex with a serious look, but her sister only blinks back at her. “I’ve known she had a kid since the moment I saw her. It’s not a big deal, not to me.”

“Cause you’ve got it bad already.”

“Shut up.”

“Never,” Alex grins, stealing a piece of Kara’s second bearclaw and quickly rolling out of the bed before Kara has the chance to punish her for it – _no-one_ steals her food and gets away with it, and she glares as Alex bends to snatch up her bag from where she’d left it on the floor beside the bed. “I’m gonna head to work, little sister. Enjoy your coffee.”

“Thanks for the wakeup call,” she mutters darkly as Alex is making her way out of Kara’s bedroom door, and she turns and flashes her a sweet smile over her shoulder.

“What else are sisters for?”


	9. Chapter 9

_What’s your coffee order?_

Cat receives the text on Friday morning as she’s rubbing at her temples, frustrated yet again by some of her employee’s level of sheer incompetence – she smiles for the first time in what feels like hours when she sees Kara’s name flashing across the screen of her phone.

She hasn’t seen the other woman since the night at the gala, since the night she’d managed to convince Cat to give this thing between them a chance. And Cat still has her doubts – that whole long, damning list of them – but for Kara, she’s willing to _try_ , for the first time in a long, long time.

_Why?_

She sets down the red pen she’s been using to scribble furiously over the latest proofs for CatCo’s next issue in order to reply, waiting patiently for Kara’s response to come through, smile still playing at the edges of her lips.

She glances up to see several of her employees eyeing her warily, and sets her mouth back into a thin line as she glares until they hastily look away and get back to work.

_I’m bringing James lunch from Noonan’s and I noticed you had a cup from there on your desk the last time I was in your office. And James might have told me that you’re having a terrible day and I thought coffee might perk you up._

Cat purses her lips at the mention of her mood – but smiles when she receives another message not two seconds later.

_Please don’t fire James for telling me that._

_I’ll consider it_ , she fires back. _And the barista’s should know my order by now. Make sure it’s hot._

_Anything for you._

Cat’s smile softens at the words on her screen, and she wonders what she’s done to deserve the good fortune that is the brightness that Kara has managed to breathe into her life.

She works quietly for a while longer, finishing the proofs with much grumbling and cursing before yelling for one of her assistants to take them back to where they came from for the corrections, and she’s just about to start on her next job for the day when she hears a soft knock on her office door.

“Come in,” she calls when she sees Kara hovering in the doorway, and she slips into the room and sets a paper cup down on the edge of Cat’s desk with a little flourish. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Hopefully it’s up to your high standards.”

“I’ll forgive it, if not. Just for you.” Kara’s lips twitch, and Cat takes a moment to appraise her outfit – black slacks and a white blouse with three buttons undone to show off those sculpted collarbones that Cat loves so much. “Did you dress up just for me?”

“No.” Kara’s eyes sparkle as Cat lets a hint of a pout play around the edges of her lips. “I had a meeting with a client this morning. I undid an extra two buttons just for you, though.” Cat chuckles quietly, and Kara’s smile makes her heart race.

“Well, I appreciate it.” She lets her gaze linger at the expanse of smooth skin that’s bare before her eyes, and feels a flash of regret that the walls of her office are glass – she’d love nothing more than to drag Kara closer and dart her tongue across the planes of her throat. “Don’t you have a lunch date to get to?”

“Yeah.” Kara doesn’t move to leave, though she does tighten her hand slightly on the paper bag in her hand. “I just wanted to see you. Make sure we were still on for tomorrow.” She’s worrying at her bottom lip, a vulnerability in those blue, blue eyes that make Cat feel like she’s drowning.

“Of course we are.” Her smile is warm, and she hopes reassuring, and the dazzling grin that settles across Kara’s lips make her think that she’s been successful. “Carter’s looking forward to it.”

He’d practically glowed when Cat had asked him if he’d mind Kara tagging along, bouncing with excitement when Cat had told him that the two of them were talking about getting together, and Cat can scarcely believe that she’s managed to find someone that her son is crazy about, too.

“And are you?” It makes Cat ache, that Kara even has to ask – but she knows that she has no-one to blame but herself for that, because she’d made Kara doubt herself when she’d tried to keep her distance, and a part of her hates herself for it.

“More than you know,” she answers, softly, and Kara’s smile is almost as bright as the sunlight streaming into her office from her balcony. “Come and see me when you’ve eaten, if you have time?” She asks quietly as Kara begins to move towards the door. “James wasn’t kidding about the terrible day. You make it slightly more bearable.”

“I promise to make you forget all about it,” Kara murmurs, voice like velvet and her eyes glittering with something that makes heat flood Cat’s stomach, and then with a wicked smile she’s gone, disappearing out the door and around the corner to James’ office, and Cat can’t help but stare after her, sure her productivity until Kara returns will be shot after _that_ little display.

She comes back almost half an hour later with a smile on her face, Cat waving her inside before she can pause to knock at the door, inclining her head towards the balcony as she pushes herself away from her desk and follows Kara outside.

She’s standing at the railing as Cat closes the door quietly behind her, shutting out the rest of her office as she pauses to admire the sight of Kara looking out over National City, hands spread across the rail as she leans forward slightly to glance at the sidewalk far below them.

“This view is amazing.”

“Yes,” Cat replies, though she has eyes only for Kara and not for any of the skyscrapers that rise high on the horizon, “it is.” Kara turns and her cheeks colour pink when she notices Cat’s gaze, and when she extends a hand towards Cat she takes it and allows herself be pulled closer, away from any prying eyes.

Kara ducks her head to ghost her lips across Cat’s, and Cat sighs at the feeling, reaching up to drape her arms across strong shoulders as Kara’s wrap around her waist.

“Hey,” Kara murmurs when they part, breathing the words against Cat’s mouth.

“Hey yourself.” The next kiss she pulls Kara into is more heated, Cat’s tongue dipping into her mouth as she searches for the hair tie holding Kara’s ponytail together and tugs until her hair falls in soft waves around her shoulders. “You should wear it down more often,” Cat tells her in-between kisses, curling her hand in blonde tresses and dragging her nails lightly over Kara’s scalp.

“Yeah?” Kara’s breathless, her eyes dark as she looks down at Cat, lips reddened from the force of their kisses. “Why’s that?”

“Because I like it,” Cat murmurs as she lowers her mouth to press her lips against the corner of Kara’s jaw, the breath stuttering out of her in a strangled gasp as Cat’s teeth graze against her skin. “And so I can do this.”

She tightens her fingers and pulls Kara’s head back gently, baring the soft expanse of her throat to Cat’s mouth. Kara clutches desperately at her hips, fingertips digging deliciously hard into Cat’s skin as she trails her lips down the column of Kara’s neck, pressing a line of open-mouthed kisses that make Kara’s back arch and a breathless moan escape her mouth that Cat wants to hear over and over again for the rest of her life.

She presses a playful bite to Kara’s pulse point, feeling it thundering beneath her lips before she pulls away, pleased smirk playing on the edges of her lips when she takes note of the flush on Kara’s cheeks, her pupils blown wide and her breathing ragged.

“I think I might come and visit you at work more often,” Kara tells her, and then she’s using her grip on Cat’s hips to spin them around, gently pressing her back against the railing and slotting a thigh between her legs. Cat hums quietly at the back of her throat, because she might not be getting any work done for the rest of the day because she’ll be able to think of nothing but _this_ , Kara’s hands slipping beneath her blouse to rest at the small of her back, touch hot enough to feel like it burns as she lowers her mouth to Cat’s neck, but god, it’s more than worth it.

She guides Kara with the hand in her hair, fingers tightening whenever her tongue flicks against her skin, or when she nips with her teeth, and Cat’s breathy sighs echo around them as she surrenders to the feeling of Kara’s lips moving against her and she thinks she never wants to leave this balcony ever again.

She’s probably also never going to be able to come out here again without remembering how it feels to arch against the strong thigh between her legs as Kara’s tongue swirls in the hollow of her throat, skirt rising higher and higher with every shift of her hips, and Cat knows that she’s soaked through her underwear and there’s a part of her that’s almost tempted to cancel the rest of her day and drag Kara back home before Carter got back from school.

“God, we should stop,” she breathes as Kara’s tongue runs along her collarbone before she’s kissing a wet trail down Cat’s sternum, pausing at the top of her blouse. “Unless you’re prepared to fuck me for the first time on this balcony.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea,” Kara grins, and Cat’s hand falls to the back of her neck as she raises her head. “But I’d rather take my time.” Her voice is low in Cat’s ear, breath hot against her skin and making her shiver. “And the middle of the working day isn’t ideal for that.”

“No,” Cat agrees, with a small flutter of regret. “It’s not.”

“Soon, though,” Kara promises before she presses one last kiss against Cat’s waiting lips. “I think I’ve distracted you enough for one day.” Cat wants to disagree, because the thought of settling back down at her desk with Kara’s touch still burned into her skin sounds unbearable, but she has an empire to run and she didn’t get to where she is today by spending her afternoons making out with gorgeous artists on her private balcony. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Mm.” Kara flashes her one last smile before she’s walking away, and Cat takes a moment to compose herself, tugging her back skirt down her thighs and wiping away any remnants of smudged lipstick that linger at the corners of her mouth before striding back into her office on steady legs.

She jumps when she finds James waiting on one of her couches, the fashion spreads that she’s been pestering him for all day sitting on the coffee table in-front of him.

“Not a word,” she murmurs when she sees the knowing smirk that’s settled across his mouth as he glances up at her, and he wisely presses his lips together and just reaches for the photographs and rises to hand them to her. “But…” She stops him before he can leave, glancing down at the spreads instead of into his eyes. “I wanted to thank you.” She keeps her voice soft as she makes her way back behind her desk, only chancing a glance up at him once she’s safely settled behind her desk. “For our conversation the other day.”

She thinks this thing with Kara would have happened regardless – Cat is drawn to her, has been since the moment they first met, and she knows that she wouldn’t have been able to stay away for long. But to have the blessing from one of Kara’s closest friends… it meant more than Cat will ever be able to say, but she thinks, from the soft smile James directs her way, that he understands.

“Anytime, Miss Grant. I’m glad you two worked things out.”

“Yes,” Cat murmurs as he’s taking his leave, leaving her to get on with the mountain of other things she has to do before she can leave for the night and spend the weekend with her son, “I am, too.”

x-x-x

“I’ll get it!” Carter yells the next morning when there’s a soft knock on the door, and Cat gives an exasperated shake of her head as she watches him bound down the hall to answer it. There’s a wide smile on Kara’s face as she’s revealed on the other side that quickly morphs into surprise when Carter flings his arms around her waist.

“Hey, kid.” She wraps an arm around his back and glances down at him with soft eyes, and Cat wishes she had a camera to photograph this moment, to immortalise it forevermore, because it still astounds her how open with physical contact Carter is around Kara, when he’ll barely even hug his own father.

“Hi, Kara!” His whole face is alight with a grin, his enthusiasm infectious as he gazes up at Kara with adoring eyes. “I’m so happy you’re coming with us today.”

“Me too.” Cat gathers up the last of their belongings and wrestles Carter into a coat before grabbing her favourite leather jacket and slinging it over her arm while Kara watches them with an affectionate smile.

She’s more dressed down than Kara has probably seen her before, in black skinny jeans a thin shirt, and she can feel Kara’s appreciative gaze lingering on her ass as Cat herds the two of them out of the apartment and turns to lock the door behind her.

“Eyes up, Kara,” she murmurs with a smirk as she turns and catches Kara in the act, flushing pink as she flashes Cat a cheeky smile.

“Can’t help it.” She has her hands tucked in the back pockets her own jeans, looking unfairly and effortlessly beautiful in a simple white tank top and oversized hoodie, with, Cat is pleased to note, her hair curling around her shoulders. “Not when you look like that.”

Cat grins and leans up to brush their lips together in a chaste kiss – Carter makes a face and Kara blushes when she glances towards him, and Cat just rolls her eyes at them both and reaches for Kara’s hand as she tugs her towards the elevator.

She presses the button for the underground parking garage, earning herself a raised eyebrow from the woman at her side.

“You can actually drive?” She teases, her eyes bright as she glances down at her, Carter tucked into Cat’s other side. “Here I thought you just let other people do it for you.”

“Usually,” Cat acknowledges, because the thought of making her way through the busy streets of National City ever morning for work makes her shudder – plus, she can get caught up on her emails and tasks for the day whilst she’s in the backseat. “But when we’re just going on a day out I like to drive myself.”

“Really she just likes speeding along the highway,” Carter tells Kara with a bright smile, and Cat nudges his shoulder lightly.

“That’s supposed to be a secret,” she whispers, and Kara chuckles quietly beside her.

“It’s okay,” Kara murmurs, radiant smile on her face. “I like to speed on the highways, too.”

“You drive?” Cat has only ever seen the girl on foot, though she supposes it’s not an unreasonable thought, considering they haven’t known one another for too long.

“Kinda,” Kara grins as they step out of the elevator, Cat leading them towards where her two cars sit – she unlocks the Mercedes with the press of her thumb, choosing it over the Ferrari for the more spacious backseat. There’s a Harley Davidson parked in the space next to Cat’s car, and Kara runs a reverent hand over the seat in a way that makes Cat pause. “This is mine.”

“You… you have a bike?” Cat hasn’t ridden on a motorcycle since she was in college – she remembers the feeling of her arms wrapped around slender hips, the wind whipping through her hair – and the thought of Kara sitting astride that monstrous thing makes her mouth go dry.

“Uh-huh.” There’s a glint in her eyes as Cat’s tongue traces over her bottom lip like she knows _exactly_ what’s running through Cat’s mind – it involves a lot of leather and much impropriety.

“Cool!” Carter darts over to the side of the motorcycle and gazes at it with wide eyes. “Could you take me on it one day?”

“Absolutely not,” Cat answers immediately, because she’s sure Kara is a wonderful driver but there’s no way in hell she’s letting her son anywhere near that thing. “You’re not allowed anywhere _near_ a motorcycle until you’re eighteen years old.” He pouts, but Cat just rests a pointed hand on her hip until he sighs and clambers into the back of the Mercedes.

“And how about you?” Kara asks once the door has shut beside him and they’re granted a precious few seconds alone. “Want a ride?” She’s grinning around the words, and Cat rolls her eyes even as she’s reaching out to curl her fingers through the loops of Kara’s jeans and tugging until they’re chest-to-chest.

“In more ways than one,” she breathes hotly against Kara’s lips before she’s rising on her tiptoes and kissing Kara hot and dirty, and when she pulls away Kara is staring down at her with wide, dazed eyes. “In the car, Kara, chop chop.”

She hears the other woman swallow loudly as Cat releases her hold on Kara’s jeans and sidles into the front seat, Kara clambering into the passenger seat a moment later – Cat is pleased to note the quick rise and fall of her chest and the flush on her cheeks.

Kara’s hand reaches into the space between them before she falters, glancing towards the backseat and Carter, unsure how to act around him as Cat slides the key into the ignition after throwing her jacket and bag into the back beside her son, and she rolls her eyes and reaches for Kara’s hand herself, letting it rest on her thigh as she pulls out from the space and makes her way out of the garage.

“What animals are you most excited to see, kid?” Kara twists in her seat to engage Carter in conversation, and Cat glances in the rearview mirror to see him pause the game he’s playing and lower his phone into his lap, looking thoughtful as he considers his answer.

“I like watching the monkeys,” he tells her quietly, and Cat has lost count of the number of hours she’s spent outside their enclosures, watching Carter’s enraptured face with a soft smile, unable to tear him away. “And I like the lions.”

“Me too. Cats are cute.” Kara turns to glance at Cat with a smirk playing around the edges of her mouth, and Cat, stopped at a red light, levels her with the most unimpressed glare she can manage, which just makes her grin.

“You’d do well to remember that this Cat has claws,” she mutters, but she can’t even bring herself to be haughty over the terrible pun when she gets to hear Kara’s quiet laughter ringing in her ears.

“What about you?” Kara prompts with a squeeze of her thigh. “What’s your favourite?” Cat’s favourite thing to see is definitely Carter’s face alight with joy, but she doesn’t want to embarrass him in-front of his new favourite person.

“I like the reptile house. Some of my employees would say I have a lot in common with cold-blooded animals.” Kara’s lips twitch, and she hears Carter chuckle quietly from behind her, despite being engrossed back in his game. “I always wanted a snake, growing up.”

“Seriously?” Kara shudders delicately, nose scrunched up in distaste. “They freak me out.”

“I’ll hold your hand while we’re in there,” Cat tells her with a sweet smile, and Kara just rolls her eyes and makes a face at her.

It’s nice, Kara’s hand on her thigh and Carter chattering excitedly from the backseat, the sun shining brightly through the window as she hums along quietly to the songs playing on the radio, and Cat finds herself thinking that she could get used to this, imagines many more family days out in their future – and then sternly tells herself that she’s getting ahead of herself, because this is still so new and undefined and _fresh_ , and she has no idea where it’s going to lead but oh, she hopes it’s somewhere.

Carter takes Kara’s hand the second they’re out of the car, dragging her towards the entrance to the zoo and Kara is quick to reach for Cat’s with her other, tugging her along, too, as Carter tells them both exactly which exhibits they’re going to and in what order.

Cat is too used to it to question him, and Kara is content to follow his lead, bright smile on her face as Carter leads her first and foremost to the chimpanzees.

“I hope you’re ready for a long wait,” Cat murmurs as he lets go of her hand to stand with his face pressed against the glass that separates the chimpanzees interior enclosure from the outside world, and Kara pulls Cat in-front of her, arms wrapping around her waist and chin resting on her shoulder.

“I think I can manage it.” Her breath stirs Cat’s hair, mouth close to her ear, and Cat sighs happily and relaxes back into Kara’s embrace. She can scarcely remember the last time she was held, and she can barely remember the last time she’d felt this content, but that’s the only way to describe the warmth that floods through her as Kara holds her tightly, both of them watching the joy that plays across Carter’s face as he watches the chimps play.

They get a few curious glances from the people around them, Cat tensing each and every time – but Kara just tightens her hold around Cat’s waist until she relaxes, or brushes her lips against her cheek gently, and she quickly forgets all about it.

“Mind if I take some photographs?” Kara murmurs after a while, breath warm against Cat’s cheek, and Cat squeezes her hands in her own and steps away.

“Not at all.” Kara’s smile is soft as she reaches for her bag to assemble her camera. It’s the same one she’d used to photograph Cat in her bed, and Cat feels heat flash through her at the memory it brings forth, the intensity of Kara’s gaze that day.

Kara’s gaze turns sharp as she brings the camera to her eyes, and Cat presses the lens away from her face with her index finger when Kara points it her way.

“Not a chance.”

“Mean,” Kara murmurs, and Cat smiles as she repositions herself to take some shots of the animals instead, and Cat’s sure she’ll find a few of Carter’s enraptured face mixed in with them, too. She watches Kara work with a fond smile, and knows that she could watch her like this all day, just like she could watch Carter’s joyful face as he gazes into each and every exhibit.

“Ready to move on yet, Carter?” Cat asks, curling her hands around Carter’s shoulders a while later. “We can come back before we leave.”

“Okay!” He drags the two of them around with an enthusiasm that Cat rarely gets to see in him, holding Cat’s hand with one of his own and Kara’s with the other.

She holds her breath when Carter asks if he can take a photo with Kara’s camera, watching as the other woman kneels down to hand over the sure-to-be ridiculously expensive piece of equipment, looping the strap around his neck before she shows him how to hold it to get the best shot.

Cat watches them with amazement in her eyes – she knows that Kara is a patient, wonderful teacher because there’s no way she couldn’t be with the way Carter gushes over her after each and every painting lesson, but she’s never gotten to see it in action before, not like this, and it takes her breath away.

She’s gentle and careful as she helps him snap his perfect picture of a lioness stretched out on a rock and basking in the sunlight, and Cat feels warmth flood through her at the adoration in Carter’s eyes as he looks up at Kara, and the glow in hers as she looks down at him, and can scarcely believe her luck.

Kara’s stomach starts to grumble soon enough, and Cat herds them towards the nearest café, picking delicately at a salad whilst Kara and Carter wolf down a burger and fries each – Cat watches them with mild horror, and feels a brief flash of trepidation about what it’s going to take to keep the two of them happily fed in the future.

She scolds herself for the thought, because this thing with Kara is still so new and they haven’t even really been on a date yet, but… it’s just so _easy_ , to imagine a hundred more Saturdays like this, Kara beside her and Carter opposite them, Kara reaching out to swipe at the ketchup on Carter’s upper lip with a napkin.

They spend the rest of the afternoon being dragged to the remaining exhibits by Carter, Kara snapping photographs every chance she gets and Cat just following in their wake. True to her word, she holds Kara’s hand in the reptile house as Carter presses his face against the glass cages, nose scrunched up in distaste as she steadfastly keeps her distance in a way that makes Cat grin – it slips from her face when Kara sneaks a photo of her, and her glare is front and centre of the next camera flash.

When they return back to where they started, Cat settles down on a bench, exhausted from trying to keep up with an excitable thirteen year old and a leggy twenty five year old, and Kara settles down beside her and pulls out a sketchbook, angling the pages so that Cat can see what she’s drawing as she begins to cover the thick white page with smudges of charcoal.

There isn’t a single artistic bone in Cat’s body, and it’s fascinating to watch the way Kara’s sketch comes to life before her eyes – she captures the look on Carter’s face, the brightness of his eyes, hands pressed to the glass, wonderfully, and it’s almost as though Cat could reach out a fingertip to brush against the page and feel his curls beneath her hand.

“He’ll love this,” Cat murmurs, resting her cheek against Kara’s shoulder as she outlines the monkey’s enclosure with broad strokes of her pencil, and Cat’s already imagining the way his eyes will light up at the sight of it.

“Yeah?”

“Mhm. I’ll definitely be the least favourite in the car on the way home.”

“Well you’re my favourite,” Kara replies after a quiet chuckle. “So that counts for something, right?”

“I suppose.” Kara pouts and Cat grins, turning her head to brush a quick kiss against Kara’s lips. When she pulls away, blue eyes flicker over to where Carter still stands, completely ignoring them, before she tangles her left hand in Cat’s hair and kisses so thoroughly that Cat nearly forgets her own name.

“Payback,” Kara breathes when she pulls away, Cat’s breaths coming in quick, sharp gasps as Kara’s amused eyes look down at her, “for before we got in the car.”

“I suppose that’s only fair.” Kara’s eyes are dark and Cat’s tongue slides along her bottom lip and god, she wants nothing more than to drag her home and into her bed and never let her leave.

“You can come over tonight once Carter’s asleep if you want,” Kara murmurs, putting the finishing touches to her sketch as Carter begins to make his way back over to them, and Cat wonders if Kara can read her mind – then again, she supposes, it can’t be all that difficult to tell exactly what she’s thinking. “And get your revenge. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

x-x-x

Cat still knocks later that evening, but when there’s no reply she presses the door open and walks inside hesitantly – finding the room within empty, she follows the sound of soft music down towards Kara’s studio.

She’s sitting behind her easel, behind the painting of Cat – and oh, it’s _beautiful_ , one of the most beautiful things she thinks she’s ever seen. She looks so… free, unguarded, a light in the green eyes that seem to come alive on the canvas, and Cat is struck, once again, by just how talented Kara is.

She’s humming quietly along to some pop song that Cat vaguely recognises, in a white t-shirt and paint-splattered dark blue jeans, hair scraped back into a ponytail and a frown of concentration on her face, tongue peeking between her lips.

Cat stands and watches her for a while, transfixed – she thinks she could stand and watch Kara work for the rest of her life, because she’s magnificent, one of the greatest things that Cat has ever been lucky enough to see.

“Has no-one ever told you that it’s rude to stare?” Kara turns her head to glance at Cat over her shoulder as she says the words, small smile on her mouth and Cat doesn’t even flinch at being caught red-handed.

“Just appreciating the view.” Kara slips her paintbrush onto the ledge on her easel and reaches for the towel slung over the back of her chair as Cat approaches.

“Let me just wash my hands and I’ll - ” She’s cut off by Cat sliding into her lap, draping one leg over each of Kara’s thighs and settling her weight comfortably on-top of her. “Or… not.”

“Couldn’t resist,” Cat murmurs, fingers already tugging at Kara’s hair tie. “But if you get paint on my clothes you’ll be in big trouble.” She ducks her head to press a kiss against the side of Kara’s jaw, smirking when her breath catches in the back of her throat. “So keep your hands to yourself.”

She breathes that into Kara’s ear before tugging at her earlobe with her teeth, and Kara lets out a tiny little whimper that’s music to Cat’s ears. Kara shifts beneath her, and Cat makes a pleased noise when she sees that Kara’s knotted her hands together behind her back, rewards her with a kiss, open-mouthed and messy that leaves the both of them breathless.

“I can’t stay long,” she murmurs against the side of Kara’s neck as she trails her lips over the delicate skin of her throat, and when Kara moans her name, hips shifting restlessly between Cat’s thighs, Cat nips harder at her skin and presses herself even closer.

She wishes she could spend the night, drag Kara down the hallway into her bedroom, press her down against the mattress and slip a hand beneath her jeans, feel Kara come undone against her mouth – she wonders how she’d look, head thrown back and eyes closed, wonders how Cat’s name would sound on her lips, wonders how tightly she’d fist her fingers in Cat’s hair to hold her close, how she’d taste on her tongue.

Just the thought makes their next kiss harder, more desperate, Cat sucking on Kara’s tongue and making them both moan, and she already knows that once her bedroom door has closed behind her later, she’ll be bringing herself over the edge with Kara’s name on her lips, the scent of her perfume lingering on her skin.

She sneaks a hand between their bodies as Kara’s teeth nip at her bottom lip, dragging her fingertips across Kara’s collarbones and then lower, lower, until she’s tugging the loose material of Kara’s shirt away from her skin and slipping her hand beneath, cupping one of Kara’s breasts, the lace of her bra rough against her palm.

“God, _Cat_ ,” Kara breathes when she dips her thumb beneath the lace, dragging it across an already straining peak, and Kara’s hips arch beneath her when Cat tugs at her nipple a little harder, rolling it between thumb and index finger.

Kara’s mouth finds the side of her neck, biting roughly at her pulse point and Cat’s fingers tug harder in response, Kara’s breath stuttering against her skin. Her kisses move lower, down Cat’s sternum, and Cat’s fingers twitch towards the hem of her shirt but she stops herself because she’s pretty certain, that if she drags it over her head she’s not going to be getting home anytime soon and she loathes leaving Carter for any longer than absolutely necessary.

“God, we should stop.” She splays her hand across Kara’s ribcage, feeling the frantic beating of her heart beneath her palm, and when Kara raises her head she’s looking up at Cat with dark, hungry eyes.

“We _should_ ,” she murmurs, biting at her reddened bottom lip. “But I don’t want to.”

“No,” Cat replies, brushing her lips over Kara’s for one last kiss. “I don’t want to, either. But Carter… Sometimes he has nightmares.” Not as many now as he had in the past – once upon a time every night he’d wake shouting, crawl into Cat’s bed and she’d hold him until the tears stopped and he fell back asleep. “I don’t want him to wake up and find me gone.”

“Okay.” Cat doesn’t move though, fingers of one hand still playing idly with strands of silken blonde hair. “I had fun today.” Kara’s eyes are bright, and Cat smiles softly. “I hope you guys did, too.”

“Carter couldn’t talk about anything else over dinner.” Kara had already had plans to spend the night with her sister, James and Lucy, and Cat had dropped her off outside her sister’s apartment on the way home from the zoo with the promise to stop by her place later that night. 

“When do I get to see you again?”

“I don’t know, I’m a busy woman,” Cat teases, wiping away Kara’s pout with the swipe of her thumb along her bottom lip.

“Too busy even for me?”

“Mm, I suppose I can make an allowance for you. How about next Saturday? Carter has a sleepover.” It’s his very first one, and Cat had been equal parts overjoyed and worried, because she was so glad that he was starting to make friends but he was her baby boy and it would be the first time he’d be spending the night away from his family. “And I know I’ll just sit at home worrying about him if I don’t have anything else to do.”

“I can do Saturday,” Kara murmurs, that bright and beautiful smile back on her mouth. “I’ll take you out on a proper date. And I’ll make sure you’re too distracted to worry too much.” There’s a heat in her eyes and in the next kiss that she presses against Cat’s lips, and Cat groans because oh, it sounds like a promise and it’s one she can’t wait to see if Kara will keep.


	10. Chapter 10

“You’re getting pretty good at this, kid,” Kara tells Carter later that week when she glances up at the painting he’s been working on over their last few sessions. Each week she sees an improvement, and she knows that he must be practising hard at home – she’d gotten a text from Cat a couple of days ago asking where Kara bought her art supplies, because Carter wanted some of his own to keep at their place. “Soon you’ll be even better than me.”

“Not possible,” he argues, but he flushes at the praise, a shy, but beaming smile on his face as he drags his paintbrush in another long stroke against the canvas.

“Sure it is. I was around your age when I properly started to paint.” She was lost and alone, spinning out of control even though the Danvers’ did everything they possibly could in order to try and help her.

She knows that Carter has his own problems – he’s quiet and shy and reserved and she knows that it affects him at school, even if he never mentions it to her. She’d been able to sense Cat’s elation at him being invited to a sleepover this weekend and suspected that it might just be his first. Kara wonders if painting offers him the same sense of freedom, of _control_ , that it offered her in her darkest moments, and hopes that it might be able to help him in the way it had her.

“And if you keep at it,” she tells him as she stretches her arms over her head and hears the joints in her shoulders pop, aching from a day of sitting in-front of an easel, “then you could really be something someday. You have the talent.”

“Thanks, Kara.” His cheeks are an even brighter shade of red than before, and Kara chuckles quietly as she rises quietly to her feet and heads towards the mini fridge in one corner of the room for a bottle of water.

“Want anything?” She asks before she shuts the door, but he only shakes his head and she twists the lid off the bottle and takes a long gulp while she studies him for a few moments. “Carter?” He only hums, distracted and still engrossed in his work. “Can I ask you something? About… about your Mom?”

That gets his attention, his head turning to look at her, blinking at her slowly as though he’s trying to get his bearings, and Kara shifts her weight a little awkwardly before forcing herself back over to the chair beside Carter's.

“Yeah?” He looks a little uncertain, like he’s unsure what she’s going to ask, and honestly, Kara doesn’t even know if she _should_ , but…

“I… We’re going out on Saturday. On a date. And I guess I just… I don’t want to mess it up, you know? Your Mom and I, we’re pretty different.” It was something Kara had thought about initially – the impossibility that someone like Cat Grant could ever want her, but aside from feeling out of her depth at the gala she hasn’t given it much thought since.

But she and Cat are from different worlds, and Kara is terrified that Cat’s going to realise that and put an end to this before it can even truly begin.

“So I was just wondering if you could like… give me some tips, I guess. About what she likes. Places she goes to a lot.”

“You’re asking for dating advice from a thirteen year old?” Carter asks her dryly, sounding more like Cat than Kara has ever heard him, and then it’s _her_ turn to flush. “Cause I’ve never been on a date, Kara.”

“I… I know _that_.” Carter’s eyes glitter with amusement at her stuttering, and Kara huffs out a sigh, running a hand over her face. “I just… you know your Mom better than anyone else in the whole world. I figure it wouldn’t hurt to get your input on things.”

Kara’s been nervous before, but she’s never felt quite _this_ much anxiety over a date, never been so, so scared of messing it up, because she wants it to go _well_ , she wants there to be a second date, and a third, and a whole lifetime of them, but she’s convinced that Cat will spend an hour with her and realise that they have nothing in common, and things will crash and burn.

She’s been driving Alex mad over the past few days, panicking ever since the moment she’d asked Cat out, dazed from the force of her kisses and the feeling of sure fingers on her skin.

“Okay, well… whenever she usually goes out, she gets taken to some fancy restaurant,” Carter tells her quietly, fiddling idly with the paintbrush he still clutches between his fingers. “The type of place she’d usually go for a business meeting, not a date. Or really pretentious places where the other person’s clearly just trying to impress her.”

It’s Cat’s voice coming through him, and it makes her smile as she listens with rapt attention, intent on learning everything she possibly can.

“So I’d maybe… not do anything like that. You said you were worrying about messing things up, but… my Mom _likes_ you, Kara. Like, really, really likes you.” She smiles softly at the words, and at the earnestness in his eyes as he peers up at her. “And I think part of that is _because_ you’re so different from the people she usually dates. So just… do something different,” he shrugs. “Something that she’s maybe never done before, or that she claims she wouldn’t be caught dead doing.”

His lips twitch, and so do Kara’s, because she has an idea and it’s potentially a terrible one that could ruin everything, and maybe she should just take Cat to some fancy place, but… Carter might just have a point. Because none of those people, the typical white collar professionals that Kara is sure Cat has dated in the past, are anything like her.

She remembers Cat’s words in the back of a town car where everything had started to shift and change between them (‘you fascinate me, you’re constantly surprising me’), and thinks that maybe that is why she’s caught Cat’s attention, and maybe she shouldn’t try and change herself in order to fit into what she thought Cat’s ideals might be.

“Okay,” Kara murmurs to Carter, mind already running away with ideas. “Thanks, kid. I appreciate it.”

“It’s okay,” Carter shrugs, ducking his head and staring at his feet. “I want to help. You make my Mom so happy.” Kara’s heart thuds almost painfully in her chest at the quiet words, full of a raw kind of honesty that Kara’s unused to. “And I want you guys to work out.”

“If it’s meant to happen, then it will,” Kara tells him, nudging his shoulder with her own playfully. “I’ve always believed that. Everything happens for a reason. And your Mom and I meeting because she tripped and I caught her? That’s some fairytale kind of magic, right there. And can I tell you a secret?” She waits until he looks up with a small nod. “I’m not planning on letting her get away anytime soon. I like her too much for that.”

His grin is bright and when he wraps his arms around her in a tight hug, paintbrush clattering to the floor, Kara grins and brings an arm around his back to hold him close, and knows that she likes Carter far too much to let him slip away, either.

She wonders if she might have stumbled across her second found family when she least expected it, and the thought makes her clutch Carter tighter, hiding her smile in his shoulder.

x-x-x

Three days later, Kara lifts a shaking hand to knock on Cat’s now-familiar door, and prays that this night isn’t a disaster.

Cat opens it with a smile, coat slung over her arm, and Kara has to give herself a moment to just… take the sight of Cat in. Because she’s wearing honest to God leather pants that look like they’ve been painted on, and a white turtleneck that’s sculpted to every single one of her curves, and even though there’s barely an inch of bare skin on display she makes Kara’s mouth water.

“Is this dressed warmly enough?” She asks with an arched eyebrow, referencing the text that Kara had sent her when Cat had asked what she should wear, clearly fishing for some detail on where they’d be spending the evening.

She’d been able to imagine perfectly the way Cat’s lips would have pursed at Kara’s completely unhelpful response of ‘just something warm’, and absolutely nothing else.

“Mhm.” Kara’s eyes fall to Cat’s ass (and _god_ does it look fantastic in those pants) as she turns to shut the door behind her, and there’s a smirk on her lips when she spins back around, catching Kara staring. “You look lovely.”

“As do you,” Cat murmurs, resting a hand on Kara’s waist as she leans on her tiptoes for a soft kiss. They’ve barely seen each other in the last week, not since the heated kisses they’d traded in Kara’s studio – there had been a brief glimpse, when Cat had come to pick Carter up from his art lesson, but she’d only been able to stop by long enough for him to pick up his bag.

Kara knows it’s because Cat has been working long hours so that her mind isn’t on work tonight, and Kara is grateful because she knows how important CatCo is to her, dreads to think how much extra time Cat has spent in her office just so that she can have tonight free.

“Where are we going?” Cat asks as Kara leads her towards the elevators with a hand on her back, and she just smiles a secret smile because she’s pretty sure that not knowing has been driving Cat _crazy_.

She wonders how long it’s been since Cat was taken on a date where she knew exactly none of the details – wonders if she’s ever even _allowed_ it before, and smiles wider at the thought.

“You’ll see,” is all the answer Kara gives as she presses the button for the parking garage and slides her hands into the pockets of her trusty leather jacket as Cat gives a delicate little huff.

She’s relaxed as she leans one shoulder back against the wall behind her, eyes open and bright as she gazes up at Kara with something like longing; it makes her want to press Cat fully against that wall and kiss her until Kara forgot her own name.

When the doors open she leads Cat over to her designated space, right beside Cat’s, and watches her face change when Kara produces keys for a car, and not the motorcycle that stands, black and gleaming, in the space beside it.

“We’re not taking the bike?” There’s an actual pout on her mouth, and it makes Kara press her lips together to hide her smile.

“Some other time,” she shrugs, and Cat’s pout deepens – Kara wonders if she’d worn the leather especially, and decides that she definitely wants to feel Cat at her back, arms wrapped around her waist, sooner rather than later. “It doesn’t really fit in with my plans for tonight, though, so I borrowed Alex’s car instead.”

Cat’s pout turns into a slow, wicked smirk as Kara unlocks the car, and she swallows thickly at the look in her eyes. “Do any of those plans involve making out in the backseat?”

“Um… maybe?” Cat grins and Kara leans over to yank open the passenger door – Cat steals a kiss as she goes, hot and hard enough to leave Kara more than a little dizzy when she pulls away, blinking down at Cat as she settles herself into the seat, pleased smile on red, red lips.

Kara’s no longer entirely certain that she’s going to last the night.

Because Cat is _hot_ , and she _knows_ it, and god, does she know how to kiss – it always, always, leaves Kara reeling, aching for more, desperate to run her hands through silken hair or over smooth skin, and judging from the hot mess Cat had left her in last weekend, if she actually lets Kara drag her into bed later tonight she’s not sure that she’ll be able to survive the experience.

What a way to go, though.

She shakes her head to clear it before sliding behind the wheel, because getting into a car crash because she can’t control her raging hormones _isn’t_ a part of her plan for them tonight. Kara wrinkles her nose when the radio blares out as she turns the ignition, some heavy rock track that nearly gives her a heart attack, and Cat’s lips twitch as Kara reaches hastily to turn it down.

“Sorry. Alex probably did that _just_ so I could make a fool out of myself in-front of you, because this is definitely not the kind of music she usually listens to.” She can practically hear her sister cackling to herself, and glowers down at the steering wheel as she pulls carefully out of the space.

She’s not used to driving – not a car, anyway – hadn’t had a need for one whilst she’d been in New York even though she’d learned when she was in high school. It’s not quite the same as feeling the wind whipping through her hair, leaning to take a corner slightly too fast and feeling the spike of adrenaline that came along with it, but she _does_ get to feel Cat’s hand burning hot against her thigh through her jeans so she supposes that there are definitely benefits to having a car, for tonight at least.

“So your sister knows you’re out with me tonight?” Cat asks, quietly, as Kara’s pulling out into the street, and when she darts her gaze across it’s to find Cat watching her with soft, soft eyes, her head tilted back against the seat.

“Yeah, of course she does. She knows everything about me.” Alex is her best friend, has been since they were kids. It hadn’t happened right away – she’d resented Kara at first, for barging her way into Alex’s family, and Kara knows that she’d felt pushed aside, in the beginning, until the two of them had started to grow closer.

Alex had overheard one of the boys in Kara’s class call her a freak one lunch hour. Kara had been used to it by then, had learned to just keep her head down and ignore it because that made her life easier.

But that day she’d heard a cry of pain and lifted her eyes from the floor to find him clutching at a bloody nose, wailing, and Alex had been stood at Kara’s side with her hand curled into a fist and fire in her eyes, and told him to never so much as _look_ at her sister ever again.

They’ve been inseparable ever since.

“And it… it doesn’t bother her?” Kara’s too busy concentrating on the road and trying not to get them lost (she’s still not familiar with the streets of this city, not entirely, and the place Alex had recommended for tonight isn’t exactly the easiest to _find_ ) to glance over again, but she can hear the vulnerability in her voice all the same, drops one hand from the wheel to cover Cat’s on her thigh and squeezes gently.

“No – why would it?”

“I’m not exactly ideal dating material,” she murmurs, twisting her palm upwards so that she can lace their fingers together and drumming her fingertips on the back of Kara’s hand. “She must have some reservations.”

“Not really.” Kara lifts one shoulder up in a half-shrug. “I mean, she wants to meet you. And probably do a background check and grill you for about three hours on your intentions with me.” She sees Cat’s lips twitch out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, it is _not_ funny. She made my first boyfriend cry.”

“I imagine I’m made of sterner stuff than that.”

“That’s what Alex said, too.” Kara smiles softly, and she can see that Cat does, too. She thinks that her sister and Cat with get along swimmingly, awkward introductions and invasive questions aside. “But she doesn’t have any reservations about you. As long as I’m happy, she’s happy. That’s how it’s always worked. And you…” They’re stopped at a red light, so she turns her head fully towards Cat, smile still on her mouth. “You make me very happy. So stop doubting yourself, or us. I _want_ this, Cat. Don’t you ever think for a second that I don’t.”

She lifts Cat’s hand to her lips and brushes a gentle kiss against her knuckles to punctuate her words, lets her mouth linger and bites her lip when she hears Cat’s breath hitch, and it’s only the sound of a horn beeping loudly behind them that snaps Kara away from Cat’s hungry, intense gaze and back onto the road in-front of her.

She’s _definitely_ not surviving this night, and that is more than okay with her.

“How was your week?” She asks, so that she can think about something other than the way Cat’s green eyes glitter in the moonlight, so that she can stop remembering the force of Cat’s kisses and the way her fingers had danced over Kara’s skin with blistering purpose as she’d pressed her down in the wooden chair that she’s barely been able to look at since.

“Awful.” Cat’s nose wrinkles, and Kara bites her lip to hide her smile. “But I don’t want to talk about work tonight.”

“Okay,” Kara relents, except… “I’d like to hear a little more about it someday, though. How you went from a gossip columnist to the CEO of a major media corporation.” Cat’s smile is proud, her eyes pleased, and Kara thinks she’s devastatingly beautiful.

“It wasn’t easy,” Cat concedes, and Kara can scarcely even imagine. “I had to be ten times as good as any of the men I worked with to get even half the recognition. But I worked hard, and I fought for it, and I got what I’d always wanted at the end. I can show you where I started one day, if you like. My first studio isn’t actually too far from where we are now.”

She looks out of the window, thoughtful, and Kara wonders if she’d once walked these same streets with a head full of dreams, wonders what memories Cat sees all around them, wonders if she’ll ever be lucky enough to know them.

“Did you move here straight after you left the Daily Planet?” Kara knows quite a lot about Cat’s career, because Cat Grant was Big News when she was growing up, and she’s seen some interviews and read some articles but she knows it’s nothing compared to hearing the stories for herself.

“Yes.” Cat’s voice is soft, and she sounds a million miles away – Kara wonders what Cat would have been like, setting off to make a name for herself in a brand new city far away from everything she knew. “As a journalist, you’re always learning something new, it’s a continuous process and if you think you have nothing new left to learn, then you’re wrong.”

Kara nods, because she feels the same way about her art. There is always a new technique to try, always a different way of doing things, and Kara knows that she will never be able to master it all within her lifetime.

“But there’s only so _much_ you can learn as an assistant in a place like the Daily Planet, under people who don’t believe that you belong there. So I packed up my bags and I left Metropolis and I decided to make a name for myself, instead. I started in a run-down building and I lived in the apartment above the studio and I barely had enough money to cover the electricity bills, never mind for food or hot water. Every night I heard my mother’s voice in my head, telling me that I was wasting my time and I’d never amount to anything.

“My father…” Cat’s eyes cloud over like Kara’s noticed they always do whenever she mentioned him. “I couldn’t have done this without him. He set some money aside for me, and despite my mother trying her best to keep it from me, I got a letter on my eighteenth birthday with a note that just said ‘follow your dreams, Cat, I’m already so proud of you’.” Her voice catches, and Kara squeezes her hand tighter. “I used half of it to put myself through college, and I invested the other half using what I learned in my business classes and I used the profits to buy the studio. The rest I used to find myself some investors, and eventually, many years and much hard work later, CatCo was born.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re amazing?”

“Mm, not enough.”

“I’m serious, Cat.” Cat’s tone had been teasing, but Kara is anything but. “You left behind everything you knew and moved halfway across the country and built one of the most successful media conglomerates around from the ground up _by yourself_. From scratch, and that’s… that’s incredible.” There’s awe in her voice and on her face, and Cat looks taken aback, eyes dark as she swallows and taps her fingers a little anxiously on her own thigh.

“You may not think that one day,” she replies quietly, looking out of the window instead of at Kara’s face. “The first time I fell in love, she chose her career over me – she thought that us being together would ruin her chance at making something of herself, if it ever got out. So she broke up with me and she broke my heart and I… threw myself into my job and I told myself that if I _made_ it, nothing else really mattered. And relationships came and went – I fell in love again, twice, and I had two boys and I chose my career over one and lost him forever. I ruined my marriage because he couldn’t handle that CatCo came first. None of the people I’ve dated since have been able to handle that, either. I’m practically married to my job, Kara. One day you might start to resent me for that, too.”

“I’m not going to say that I get it, because I don’t know what it takes to run a company like yours.” Kara picks her words carefully, because she feels like this is another one of the reasons why Cat had been so determined to keep Kara at arm’s length – because she was terrified that she would leave her just like everyone else. “But I _do_ understand what it’s like to love what you do. To allow it to consume you, to let everything else fade away because _making_ it is more important than anything else in the world.

“I’m not going to say that I won’t be disappointed when – and I know it’ll happen, I’m not naïve about that – you have to cancel date night or push back dinner plans by a few hours because something’s gone wrong. But I _understand_ it. I know that Carter comes first, and CatCo next, and maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to come third. I’ve always known who you are, Cat, and what you do, and how important it is to you. And I promise to always remember that when you call and tell me you’re going to be late – _if_ you promise to keep trying. To stop listening to whatever doubts I know are still swimming around in that gorgeous head of yours. I want this, I want _you_ – all of you, Cat Grant CEO included.”

“How do you…” Cat trails off, her eyes a little wide as Kara pulls into a parking space outside of the restaurant Alex had suggested, giving herself a metaphorical pat on the back for not getting them horrifically lost in the back streets of National City, and she turns to face Cat as she switches of the ignition, the low hum of the engine and the quiet noise of the radio fading and leaving them in a heavy silence. “You always know exactly the right thing to say. Maybe I should hire you as a writer.”

“That would end badly,” Kara tells her, smile playing around the edges of her lips. “Because English was my worst class and I was terrible at it. I’m much better at painting the things I want to say.” All the things she wants to say to Cat would be done in bright, explosive colours, red and a brilliant blue splattered on white canvas, the soft warmth of a sunrise and the beauty of a sunset. “But around you the words come easier.”

“I wish I could say the same.” Cat’s eyes fall to their hands, still intertwined and resting on Kara’s thigh. “I made a living out of stringing sentences together but you… I look at you and I forget everything I want to say. Sometimes I can scarcely remember how to breathe.” Kara grins, because sometimes she feels the same way – when Cat is looking at her with heavy eyes and a wicked smile, she finds herself all too easily forgetting her own name. “And it terrifies me.”

That’s so quiet that it’s almost a whisper, and Kara doesn’t think she would have heard it if not for the stillness in the car. Cat’s gaze had still been trained on their hands, but at the soft words she lifts her head and that vulnerability is back in her eyes, and Kara feels her heart clench painfully tight at the sight of it.

“It scares me, too,” she admits, because she isn’t used to feeling like this, so completely off-balance and off-kilter, left flustered and wanting by a single searching glance or an aberrant brush of skin against skin, filled with a yearning to be close to the woman before her that she doesn’t think she’s ever felt before.

It’s terrifying but it’s also _exhilarating,_ because it’s fresh and it’s new and it leaves her dizzy and oh, wanting so much more, and Cat just might be a drug that she’s never going to be able to give up.

“But we can be terrified together.” Cat’s smile is soft and Kara reaches between them to unfasten her seatbelt and brush their lips together, Cat’s happy sigh breathed into her mouth as Kara parts her lips with her tongue.

She keeps the kiss brief, because she knows if she lets her hands wander she won’t be getting out of this car anytime soon, and she’s stressed too much about this date to let her plan go to waste.

Kara eyes Cat’s face warily as they slip out of the car and towards the door, because she can pretty much guarantee that Cat has never been here before, and if she sees any kind of distaste on her face then she’s ready to drag her back to the car and to the more upscale sushi place she’d also considered for tonight.

But Cat’s face stays only mildly curious as Kara pulls the door open and ushers her inside, and she glances around them with interest as they’re lead towards the back of the restaurant by one of the waiters.

Kara’s never been before, but it’s nice – a little dark, maybe, mostly lit by candlelight, cosy booths along the walls and smaller tables crowded into the middle, soft classical music playing through the speakers.

She slides into a booth opposite Cat and hopes the other woman doesn’t notice the way her fingers tremble when she takes the menu offered to her and opens it out in-front of her.

“I hope this is okay,” she starts when the waiter is gone, feeling her earlier unease reappear, full-force, now that it’s no longer just her and Cat alone together in the car. Here they’re surrounded by the quiet buzz of voices, here they’re out in the open and not in their own little world, and she’s still certain that _something_ is going to go wrong. “I didn’t know where you’d prefer to eat and I figured, why not try somewhere you’ve probably never been to before and maybe that was a bad idea and you hate this place, but Alex said it does really good food and maybe it’s not the type that you’re used to but - ”

“Kara,” Cat cuts her off, and she glances up from the menu with wide eyes to see Cat looking at her with bright amusement. “While I find your rambling to be rather adorable, please remember to breathe. I don’t want you passing out before we even get to the appetisers.”

“Sorry.” Kara flashes her a sheepish smile, fingers playing with the edges of the pages in-front of her. “I’m just… nervous, I guess.”

“Why?” Cat’s eyes hold only curiosity, as if she can’t possibly fathom what has Kara so tied up in knots, and it almost makes her smile.

“Because I don’t want to mess this up.” Cat only arches an eyebrow, and Kara glances down at her hands. “You and I… we’re so different. We come from completely different backgrounds and I didn’t… I guess I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

“Kara.” She doesn’t look up until Cat’s fingers are gently grasping her chin and tilting her head so that their eyes meet. “I eat at the same five restaurants and I have done for the past several years – a little change is probably good for me.” Kara’s lips twitch and she feels a few of the butterflies that have been churning in her stomach start to fly away. “And as long as I’m with you, I’m not going to be disappointed.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Cat affirms with a nod, and she takes her hand from Kara’s chin only to curl it around the back of Kara’s, stilling the nervous movement of her fingers. “And honestly? I’m _glad_ we’re from different backgrounds. Glad you’re not stuck up and pretentious like most of the suits that ask me out on a date. Glad you didn’t grow up in a family where image mattered more than kindness.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara murmurs, because Cat’s eyes always go so, so dark, whenever she talks about her mother or her childhood, and it makes Kara ache because her earlier years had been filled with love and laughter – and there had been that awful, dark period where she’d lost her entire world in the blink of an eye but the Danvers… they had tried so _hard_ and Kara will never stop missing her parents but Eliza and Alex and Jeremiah, in the brief time she’d known him, had been so good to her, and they’d made her smile even when she’d wanted nothing more than to break down and cry.

“Don’t be.” Cat manages a smile, but it’s more like a grimace. “I probably shouldn’t speak so badly of my mother, considering you lost yours. It’s selfish of me.”

“I have met your mother, you know,” Kara points out, shuddering at the thought and already dreading running into Katherine Grant again, because she’s sure it’s going to happen one of these days.

Probably sooner rather than later.

“And you’re allowed to speak badly of her. She’s… not the greatest person I’ve ever met.”

“Quite the understatement,” Cat says lightly. “But I think we’ve talked enough about the past for one night, don’t you?”

“There is one more thing I’d like to know…” Kara trails off, biting at her bottom lip, because the thought had occurred to her when she’d remembered Katherine at the gala and it’s been bothering her ever since but there’s never been a good moment to _ask_. Cat merely raises an eyebrow, and Kara decides that that’s good enough for encouragement for her, takes a deep breath and blurts out, “what’s the deal with you and Lois?” before she can talk herself out of it.

Cat’s eyes widen slightly, and Kara watches closely the way her expression closes off, just the tiniest amount – so small that she wouldn’t even have noticed it, had she not been looking for it. Cat draws her hand away from Kara’s and drums her fingertips on the table, resting her chin in the palm of her other hand and eyeing Kara warily.

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No,” Kara shakes her head. “She said that I should ask you.”

“I assumed that was what she was saying to you when she caught your attention at the gala. That and trying to warn you away from me.”

“She was actually giving us her blessing.” Cat’s eyebrows raise in surprise, and Kara lifts her shoulders in a shrug. “She just said she didn’t want to see me get hurt. But that if I was happy, she was okay with it. And I just wondered… I mean, you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to. That’s okay. But Lois is practically family and if we’re together for a while… you’re going to run into one another because Clark and I are pretty close, and if that’s going to be a problem for you then I’d rather know it now.”

“It’s not… a problem.” There’s distaste in Cat’s eye, though, and Kara _aches_ to know their history. “I can be civil.”

“ _Can_ you?” Kara asks with an arched brow, because she’s heard Cat’s acerbic tongue before and she’s heard Lois’, too has absolutely no idea to find herself in the midst of an argument between the two of them.

“Yes,” Cat replies with a roll of her eyes, and then she’s waving a waiter over to them and ordering a bottle of wine. “I need a drink if I’m going to get through this conversation with you,” is the only explanation she offers to Kara’s curious look, before she gives a delicate little sigh. “Do you remember what I told you in the car before? About the first woman I fell in love with?”

“She chose her career over you,” Kara recalls, and Cat nods, and then she raises an expectant eyebrow and Kara’s mouth flies open in a gasp. “Wait. _Wait_.” Cat does just that, as Kara’s mind tries to catch up. “That was… you and _Lois_?”

“Mm.” Kara is too stunned to be able to do anything other than stare at Cat in shock. “It was a long time ago, things were different then. She and I began at the Daily Planet around the same time, though she was a handful of years younger, in similar positions… we were both women trying to make it in a male dominated world and we… grew close.” Cat looks down at her hands as she speaks, almost like she’s afraid of Kara’s reaction. “I fell for her, but I knew she didn’t feel the same way about me. It didn’t last long – she was scared people would find out and it would compromise her career, and when she ended it… It hurt me. And it was easier to lash out, to focus on how angry I was instead of how painful it was, and I hurt her in return. About six months later I left the Daily Planet, and we’ve been trading blows ever since.”

“That’s…” It takes Kara a while to find her voice, and when she does she doesn’t know what to _say_. “I had no idea.”

“Few people do,” Cat admits quietly. “I doubt even your cousin does. She was so determined to keep us a secret that I suspect she didn’t tell a single soul.” Cat finally glances up from the table then, as their waiter returns with that bottle of wine and fills both their glasses, and Cat takes a hefty gulp the second he’s gone, eyeing Kara warily. “Does this… change anything between us?”

“No.” Kara is horrified by just the mere thought. “God, no. Why would it?”

“You said it yourself – she’s practically your family,” Cat murmurs, running her index finger around the rim of her glass. “I didn’t know if it would make you uncomfortable.”

“It doesn’t.” It was going to take her some time to process, but it didn’t _bother_ her. Cat had a past, and so did she, and there wasn’t a thing either one of them could do to change it. “Does it change anything for you?”

“No,” Cat says with a shake of her head. “It was almost thirty years ago.” She winces as she says it, glancing at Kara like she’s remembering the fact that Kara isn’t yet that age, and Kara swallows because she knows that Cat’s hyper-aware of their age difference and despite Kara having absolutely no issue with it she knows that Cat still has some that linger. “I got over it a long time ago.”

“Bet family gatherings are gonna be awkward for a little while, though.” She needs to say _something_ light-hearted to get that look out of Cat’s eye, and it works, because her gaze softens and her lips twitch and her hand finds Kara’s over the table once more, and Kara breathes a small sigh of relief. “Know what you wanna eat yet? Not as fancy as your usual haunts, but I’ve been told that the food here is amazing.”

“I trust your judgement,” Cat replies, though there’s just the _tiniest_ hint of doubt in her eyes as she scans over the menu once more. “Or your sister’s judgement, I suppose, in this case.”

“In my defence, I’m new to this city,” Kara points out, because she has absolutely _no_ idea where the best places to eat around here are – aside from takeout, of course. That she’s had pegged since her first week in National City. “And I’m also terrible at first dates, as a general rule. I need all the help I can get.” Cat doesn’t look up, though she smiles down at her menu and god, she’s so beautiful that she steals the breath from Kara’s lungs. “Including from Carter. I asked his advice about tonight.”

“Yes,” Cat murmurs, closing the menu and looking up, amusement dancing in green eyes. “He told me.”

“He did?” Kara is horrified, because she’d only decided about two minutes ago that she was okay with Cat knowing she stooped so low as to ask a thirteen year old for his best dating advice.

“Mhm.” Cat looks delighted at Kara’s expression. “Only because he told me not to mess this up.” Cat gives Kara her best eye roll, and she _almost_ smiles in spite of herself. “He said you were nervous,” she says then, her voice softening and her fingers tightening their grip on Kara’s hand. “And he told me to be on my best behaviour, no matter where you took me. _That_ had me a little worried.” Kara’s lips do twitch into a smile, this time. “But,” Cat pauses to glance around them, “this place isn’t so bad. Not somewhere I’d usually go, but it’s… quaint.”

“That’s your best compliment?” Kara teases, eyes dancing with laughter. “Quaint?” Cat just purses her lips, and Kara grins. “You don’t mind that I went to Carter?”

“I think it’s sweet. And I can only imagine that he was all too eager to help.”

“Kinda. He mostly talked about how much you like me and how awesome I am for you.” Cat shoots her a playful glare and Kara’s grin widens, their conversation cut short as their waiter reappears to take their order.

Cat orders some fancy-sounding salad that makes Kara glance at her in disapproval, because the woman is _tiny_ and surely something more substantial than a few lettuce leaves will do her some good, but she doesn’t comment as she gets some pasta for herself and hands the menu over.

“How is Carter, anyway?” Kara asks, even though she’d seen him not three days ago. “How was that history test he was worried about?”

“He told you about that?” Cat looks surprised, and Kara’s noticed that she does that a lot when Kara lets slip something about her son, and it makes her wonder how Carter acts around others, because he’s always been so open with her.

Sometimes he’s quiet and reserved but she knows that that’s only when he feels overwhelmed, and she remembers how she’d felt like that, sometimes, in those hard months after she’d first moved in with the Danvers’. She’d remember how Alex had used to just… talk, a _lot_ , whenever Kara had closed herself off and drawn into herself, distracting her with stories and mindless chatter, remember how it had helped her not focus so much on her own thoughts, and so she does the same for Carter.

He always smiles gratefully at her and hugs her before he leaves, and Kara falls a little more in love with him each and every time.

“Yeah,” Kara shrugs. “We spend like, at least three hours a week alone in a room together. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” she says this part in a conspiratorial whisper, “but I kinda can’t deal with awkward silences. So we talk. Or I talk, mostly.” Cat’s lips twitch, and Kara knows she’s no doubt noticed all the rambling Kara does when she’s nervous. “But sometimes he joins in.”

“He thinks the test went well,” Cat tells her, and Kara smiles, because when she’d quizzed him on Wednesday with her very limited knowledge of the Civil War he’d aced it and she’d told him he’d be fine. “You know,” Cat continues, thoughtful look on her face as she takes a sip of her wine, “I’ve been on a lot of dates - ”

“Are you trying to make me jealous?” Kara interrupts, teasing, and Cat just shoots her a pointed look that makes her grin. “Sorry. Please continue telling me about all those other dates you’ve been on.” Cat’s lips press together in a tight line as she tries to fight a smile.

“I’ve been on a lot of dates,” she says again, and Kara pouts until Cat rolls her eyes, “but this is the first time anyone’s ever asked about my son.” Cat looks at her like she can barely believe that Kara is real, and she feels her breath catch at the intensity in those gorgeous eyes. “No-one’s ever cared enough to ask.”

“Well, I do,” Kara murmurs, and Cat squeezes her hand. “I’m not… I’ve never been very good around kids,” she admits, voice quiet. “I never knew what to _do_ with them? Alex used to babysit when we were in high school and sometimes I tried to help her out but I was just… awful. Like, so bad that one time she was looking after three kids at once and she actually told me to _stop_ helping and just go lock myself in our room, instead.” Cat lets out a chuckle – possibly one of the most wonderful sounds that Kara has ever heard – even as Kara’s shuddering over the memory of running around the Danvers’ residence after a _really fast_ and screaming four year old.

“And I tried teaching some art classes when I was in college, for extra credit, at the elementary school down the street and it… did not go well.” That may have been a _slight_ understatement – the school had asked her not to come back, and Kara was only too happy to comply.

She didn’t even know that it was _possible_ to get that _much_ paint onto a ceiling but… apparently it was.

“I know that it amazes you that Carter’s so at ease around me.” Cat looks surprised that she noticed, but it’s kind of hard _not_ to. “It amazes me, too. And I’m probably going to ask about him a lot, because he’s a great kid. And I guess what I’m trying to say is… thank you. For letting me get to know him. And you.”

Kara swears she sees Cat’s eyes glitter with tears for one long, heavy moment before she blinks them away, and then Cat’s leaning over the table and curling a hand around Kara’s neck and she’s kissing her.

The angle is awkward and the kiss is messy and Kara’s ribs dig into the wood of the table but god, she doesn’t care because Cat is like a hurricane, crashing into her and leaving her breathless and dizzy, and her fingers clutch at the back of Kara’s neck like she never wants to let her go.

“What did I do,” Cat murmurs when she pulls away, her lipstick smudged and Kara’s lips still tingling from the force of that kiss, Cat’s pupils blown wide as her hand curls around Kara’s jaw and her thumb slides along the angle of her cheekbone, “to deserve someone like you?”

“Funnily enough,” Kara replies, voice shaky and her heart pounding loud in her ears because Cat is looking at her like she wants to devour her, “I was just asking myself the same question.”

Kara thinks she could spend a lifetime trying to paint the way Cat’s eyes soften as she smiles – the way her lips curve upwards and the way the skin at the corner of her eyes crinkles with the force of it, the way it lights up her whole face in a glow so bright that it’s almost radiant – but she knows she’d never quite manage it, not perfectly, because it’s one of those rare things that are impossible to ever truly capture.

Cat drops her fingertips from Kara’s cheek when their food arrives, looking impressed as Kara polishes off her food in record time whilst she picks at her salad. Kara’s going to start paying close attention to Alex’s food recommendations in the future, because it’s _fantastic_ , and Kara can’t help but let out an appreciative moan when the first piece of pasta touches her tongue. The way it makes Cat’s eyes widen as she swallows thickly, eyes hot on Kara’s face, is definitely an added bonus.

“I admit to having my reservations when you started driving us through the backstreets,” Cat says once she’s also finished, as Kara’s pouring out the remainder of their bottle of wine, and Kara grins because she _knew_ it, “but that was delicious.”

“Did you get a salad because it’s a safe option wherever you go?”

“…Maybe.”

“Can’t believe you didn’t trust me to take you to a nice place,” Kara shakes her head in mock disapproval as their plates are cleared. “Up for dessert? I’ve been told the chocolate cake is to die for.”

“Literally, considering I saw that the table over there,” she waves somewhere over Kara’s shoulder, “get one and it looked like a heart attack on a plate.”

“My favourite kind of food.”

“Yes, well, some of us don’t have the luxury of eating whatever we like and still looking like a model,” Cat points out, and Kara just rolls her eyes because Cat is drop-dead _gorgeous_ and she knows it. “Get dessert, if you like. I’ll steal a bite.”

“Okay, one very important thing you need to know about me if we keep on doing this,” she gestures between the two of them as Cat eyes her warily, “is that I do not share food. Especially cake.”

“I’m sure I can persuade you to make an exception.” Cat’s smirk is wicked, and Kara’s mind goes blank and her throat goes dry and _god_ , how is it possible for Cat to reduce her to a puddle of want with just a single _look_?

“Probably,” Kara murmurs, barely louder than a whisper, and Cat’s smirk turns smug. Kara orders dessert, and Cat sips at her wine and watches Kara eat with an almost affectionate look in her eyes, and when Kara reluctantly offers Cat a piece on her fork, a smudge of frosting remains on her bottom lip, and the slow way she slides her tongue along it, Kara’s wide eyes following the movement closely, makes the sacrifice more than worth it.

“Time to get out of here?” Cat asks when Kara leans back in her chair, chocolate cake demolished and feeling significantly fuller than she had when she’d walked in, and she hums as she makes eye contact with their waiter and asks for the cheque.

Cat purses her lips when Kara insists on paying, but she doesn’t argue, and as she leads Cat back out to the car, Cat’s hand warm in hers and her eyes hot on her skin, Kara is almost tempted to forgo the rest of her plans for the evening and take them straight home instead. Because Cat’s earlier kiss had settled like molten fire in her gut, and Carter isn’t home and Kara’s hoping that that means that she and Cat can have a sleepover of their own.

But she’d spent days agonising over tonight, and she wants it to be perfect, so she can control her raging hormones for just a few more hours.

“Where to now?” Cat asks as Kara pulls open the passenger car door, but she only gives her best mysterious smile before walking around the front of the car and sliding behind the wheel. Cat gets a phone call as they drive, says she’s sorry as she fishes her phone out of her purse, but Kara sees Carter’s name emblazoned across the screen and waves away her apologies, turning the radio down so it’s little more than a quiet hum as Cat lifts the phone to her ear.

Kara glances at Cat, worried for a long moment, but her face is relaxed and there’s a soft smile on her mouth and Kara overhears Carter’s excited chatter about how much of a good time he’s having, and that he only called to tell her he was okay and to wish her goodnight.

He bids Kara goodnight, too, and when Cat repeats the words she grins and calls it back, loud enough for him to hear despite not being on speakerphone, and she hears his delighted laugh before he yells ‘bye’ to his Mom one last time before hanging up.

“He sounds like he’s having fun.”

“Yes.” Cat looks almost bemused as she glances at the screen one last time before putting the phone away. “He’s never been invited to a sleepover before. Never been invited to do much, really. He keeps to himself, he always has. I was worried that he’d be homesick.”

“It’s good that he’s not, though, right?” Kara presses, because she swears there’s just the smallest hint of sadness hiding in Cat’s eyes.

“Of course it is.” There’s a pause, Cat staring out of the window, the sky dark and slashed through with colour only from the stars and the moon. “It’s just… It’s only been the two of us, for so long. I can’t help but wonder if this is going to be the start of him pulling away, of him not needing me anymore.” She takes a shaky breath, blinks several times in quick succession and Kara wonders if she’s trying to keep tears at bay. “Sorry. You probably don’t want to hear about my parenting woes.”

“Hey.” Kara pokes Cat in the thigh until she turns away from the window to glance at her, instead. “You can talk to me about anything, you know that right? I’m here for you. No matter what.” Cat’s smile is all gratitude. “And as for Carter, he’s always going to need you, you’re his Mom, and he loves you. He’s not going anywhere.”

“There you go again,” Cat murmurs, “knowing all the right things to say.” Kara just smiles, turning off the main street until the car moves over gravel, and Cat looks around them with interest as Kara pulls to a stop. “Are we in the middle of a field?” She asks, suspicion in her voice, and Kara just laughs as Cat cranes her neck to glance out of the rear window.

“Calm down,” Kara murmurs, leaning over the centre console to catch Cat’s chin between her fingers and press a kiss to waiting lips. “I didn’t bring you out here to murder you.” She doesn’t lean away when she says the words, Cat’s breath still hot on her lips.

“Just to kiss me?”

“Mm, maybe.” Kara slides her fingers through silken hair, tugs until Cat groans, low in the back of her throat, before capturing her lips in another kiss. This one is tinged with more desperation, Cat’s head tilting and tongue pressing past Kara’s lips, dragging against her own before licking at the back of her teeth, Kara’s moan rumbling into Cat’s mouth. “Although that wasn’t my only plan for tonight,” she admits when they part, her breathing ragged and the windows on either side of them beginning to steam up. “And if we don’t hurry,” she adds when she catches sight of the clock on the dashboard, “then we’re going to be late.”

Cat glances around them once more, looking intrigued as Kara slips from the car and pops open the trunk, gathering up the pile of blankets that Alex had kindly let her borrow (‘if you have sex on them, I don’t want them back’ had been what she’d said when she handed them over earlier that day, and Kara had thumped her hard in the face with a pillow), and Cat raises an eyebrow as she joins Kara and sees what she’s holding.

“Ah, is this why we couldn’t take the bike?”

“Couldn’t exactly fit them in.” Cat hums, slamming the trunk closed and trying to steal one of the blankets to carry, but Kara just nudges her away. “Also why I told you to dress warm,” she adds when she sees Cat shiver, digging her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

“We can keep each other warm,” Cat replies with another one of those wicked smirks, and Kara’s back to thinking that she’s definitely not making it through this night alive.

She feels some of her earlier nerves return as she leads Cat down a well-worn path, but everything else tonight has gone smoothly thus far and she thinks this just might, too. She hasn’t been to something like this herself since she was in high school, but it had always been fun and she’s pretty sure it’ll be even better with Cat snuggled into her side.

The path leads them into a clearing where several people are already gathered, sitting on the ground in small groups, huddled in blankets and all facing the same direction – towards a building, a projector directed onto it so the entire outside wall becomes a big screen, and she hears Cat let out a breath as she takes in the sight before her.

“An outdoor cinema?”

“Is this… okay?” Kara asks, uncertainly, when Cat pauses – but then her eyes light up with a childlike excitement that Kara doesn’t think she’s ever seen on Cat’s face.

“Yes,” Cat breathes, taking Kara’s arm and steering her forward, managing to find a space a little ways away from other people and yet still has a perfect view. “I haven’t been to a screening like this in years. I used to love them.”

“I thought you might.” Kara ducks her head as she spreads the thickest blanket down on the floor for them to sit on, feeling suddenly shy under Cat’s awed gaze. “One of my clients mentioned this a few weeks ago and it made me think of you.” She’d noticed the collection of movies Cat had on one of the shelves in her den, and when she’d asked Carter about it he’d told her all about Cat’s love of the classics, how she used to tell him that some of her favourite memories from school were escaping for the weekend and going to the drive-in movie theatre down the street.

“What are we watching?”

“Well, it’s a marathon, over the entire weekend, but I figured we probably wouldn’t want to be out here too long considering the temperature.” Cat folds herself neatly down on the blanket and tugs another over her legs as Kara sprawls out next to her, legs out straight and leaning back on her hands. “So I had to choose which showing to come to. I thought Gone With the Wind was the best choice.”

“It’s one of my favourite movies,” Cat tells her quietly, and Kara gives her another shy smile.

“Carter _may_ have helped me pick it out.” Cat just laughs, leaning in to Kara’s side and pressing a gentle kiss against her cheek as the screen flickers to life and the movie begins to play.

Kara’s seen it before, and she’s more enraptured by Cat than anything else – her attention is focused on the screen, body warm against Kara’s and their legs tangled beneath the blanket. She mouths along to some of the scenes, and Kara thinks it’s adorable, unable to stop smiling, eyes focused on the side of Cat’s face.

“You’re supposed to be watching the screen, not me,” Cat murmurs about halfway through, own eyes never straying from the wall in-front of them.

“But you’re so much more interesting to look at,” Kara breathes into Cat’s ear, and she shivers when Kara catches her earlobe between her teeth a tugs gently. She pulls back only to press a kiss to the corner of Cat’s jaw, and then on her neck, Cat’s breathing turning ragged though she never looks away from the movie screen – it only makes Kara re-double her efforts.

She’d wondered, at the gala with her fingers wandering dangerously high on Cat’s thigh, what it would take to make her lose control. She’s hindered tonight by the amount of clothes Cat is wearing, her sweater tight against her throat and the collar of her jacket high, but Kara noses them both out of the way, closes her teeth around Cat’s pulse point and _bites_ , and Cat lets out a breathy little whimper that sends a flood of heat straight to Kara’s centre, and she wants to hear that sound over and over and over again for the rest of her life.

“If you leave a mark somewhere visible you’re in trouble,” Cat tells her, though she tilts her head and offers Kara more of her neck, breathing laboured, and Kara hums and runs her tongue along the ridge of cartilage of Cat’s throat until she gasps.

“Does that mean you want me to stop?” She asks, mouth at the base of Cat’s neck, surrounded by the heady scent of her shampoo and the perfume on her skin.

“God, no.” Kara grins and presses another bite to Cat’s neck, feels her pulse racing beneath her lips, but she’s careful not to put on too much pressure, fully intending to heed Cat’s warning about leaving a blemish on smooth skin.

Cat’s hand finds her thigh as Kara continues to lavish attention on her neck, the only part of Cat accessible to her mouth, and her breathing is loud in Kara’s ear as she digs her fingers into Kara’s leg, nails biting at her skin even through the denim of her jeans.

It’s the delicious kind of pressure that makes her _ache_ , and with every tiny, breathless noise Cat makes, Kara feels herself grow wetter, knows that, if she doesn’t end up falling into bed with the woman currently arching into the press of her lips, then she’ll be slipping her hand beneath her underwear the second she’s alone in order to alleviate the dull throb between her thighs that grows sharper with every kiss she presses to Cat’s skin.

Cat takes her hand from Kara’s thigh only to thread it through her hair, instead, tugging Kara’s mouth away from her neck. She turns her head and catches Kara’s lips in a kiss that’s absolutely devastating, hot and hard, fingers so tight in Kara’s hair that she’s unable to move an inch as Cat claims her mouth and leaves her entire body humming with desire.

When she pulls away, she takes Kara’s bottom lip with her, dragging it between her teeth until she releases it with a pop, and Cat’s pupils, when Kara blinks her eyes open to look at her, are blown wide, eyes a darker shade of green than Kara has ever seen them.

“I already know the ending,” Cat murmurs through quick, sharp breaths, her eyes on Kara’s lips, expression hungry. “So why don’t we get out of here and head home, instead?”

Kara’s answer is to scramble to her feet, hastily gathering up their blankets, Cat’s breathless laughter ringing quietly in her ears.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mind the rating change, folks! This chapter is definitely NSFW.

Kara’s hand is warm in hers as she tugs Cat back towards the car, and Cat can’t stop _smiling_ because this might just be the most fun she’s had in her entire life – it’s certainly the best first date she’s ever had, with an artist half her age, and Cat thinks that Kara Danvers just might have it all.

She’s gorgeous, and she’s talented, and she’s intelligent. She’s also one of the most interesting people that Cat has ever met; tonight has only made her more sure of that fact. No-one has ever taken her to some cosy, out of the way restaurant and an outdoor movie theatre, not since she was in high school and certainly not now that she’s the CEO of one of the most successful media conglomerates in the country.

Kara makes her feel young again, reckless and _alive_ , and when they reach the car, Kara pulling open the passenger door, Cat can’t help but press Kara back with a hand at her sternum, her other curling around the back of her neck.

Kara’s mouth has been driving her wild all night, the skin of her neck still alight from the hot press of her lips, and Cat kisses her _hard_ , their teeth clashing as she steps close to Kara, thigh falling between Kara’s legs and the moan that echoes into Cat’s mouth makes her shudder, Kara’s hips arching against her as strong, sure hands grab at her waist.

They’re out in the open and Cat should probably be more conscious of that, but the parking lot is mostly empty and Cat doesn’t know how to tear herself away, not when Kara’s grasping at her with near-bruising force, not when Cat can feel the heat of her against her thigh, not when she’s moaning into Cat’s mouth and kissing her like the world as she knows it will end when they part.

Her hand shifts from Kara’s sternum, palming at one of her breasts through the thin material of her shirt, and Kara bites at her bottom lip in response, hard enough for it to sting, and oh, Cat thinks she could do this every single damn day for the rest of her life.

She pulls away only because she knows if she doesn’t, she will want to tug at the button of Kara’s jeans and slide her hand beneath, wants to _feel_ Kara, hot and slick beneath her fingertips, wants to sink to her knees and taste her on her tongue, and she can’t do that here, against the side of a car in a public place.

“Take me home,” she breathes against Kara’s lips, kissing her one last time as Kara nods against her, and it takes more effort than Cat will ever admit to take a step back when their lips next part, her breathing ragged and her pulse racing loudly in her ears.

Kara blinks at her for one long moment, still leaning back against the car door. Her eyes are wide and her cheeks flushed, lips red and smudged with the colour of Cat’s lipstick – she looks completely dishevelled, and Cat has never seen a sight so beautiful. 

She still looks dazed as she settles behind the wheel, and Cat knots her hands in her lap because she thinks if she lets them rest on Kara’s thigh she will be too tempted to let her fingers wander, and she thinks Kara lacks the self-control for that, doesn’t want their night to end with them crashing on the side of the highway because Cat couldn’t keep her hands to herself.

“Did you really have fun tonight?” Kara’s the one to break the silence between them, heavy with the want and desire that seems to settle in the air between them, and Cat turns in her seat to face the other woman, leaning her shoulder against the door at her back.

“More than I have in a long, long time,” Cat answers honestly, and Kara’s smile robs the breath from her lungs. “And I have no idea how I’m supposed to top tonight the next time I take you out.” Kara’s smile widens at the mention of a next time, which Cat thinks is ridiculous, because how could she have ever doubted that?

“It’s not like I did anything special,” Kara shrugs, and Cat just stares at the side of her face in disbelief, because the woman had managed to plan a night around something that Cat adored – something that very few people had ever cared to do for her in the past, and certainly not this early on in a budding relationship.

And almost always just to impress her, or to get something from her, but Kara? She’d done it just because that was who she _was_ , and if Cat had still been doubtful of Kara deserving the world, of being much too good for her, then she’s more sure of it now than ever before.

She has no idea what Kara sees in her, but if tonight has shown her anything, it’s that she’s not willing to let it slip away because of her own insecurities, not when Kara makes her feel like this, so _happy_ and free.

“I beg to differ,” Cat argues, but Kara only shakes her head. It makes her hair fall into her eyes (Cat had been pleased to find that she’d left it down for the evening, has been grateful for the opportunity to run her fingers through it). “And I don’t know any of your friends well enough to interrogate them on the things you like.”

“You could always ask me instead.”

“Oh, like you did?” Cat arches an eyebrow, and Kara’s cheeks tinge pink. Cat smiles at the look on her face, because she really does think it’s adorable, how she’d gone, terrified, to ask Carter’s advice.

“You know James,” Kara points out, but Cat merely makes a face. “And you can… you can meet the others, if you want. My sister.” Cat freezes a little, despite herself, because that makes this more _real_. “She’s having a Halloween party next Friday. Usually it’s just the two of us, we stay in and watch really crappy movies, but James and Lucy are in town so I think they’re coming, too. It’ll just be games and beer, mostly. But, you know, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, don’t feel pressured or anything - ”

“Kara,” Cat cuts her off, because she’s doing that adorable rambling thing again. “Breathe.”

“Sorry.”

“I… I want to meet your friends,” Cat starts, picking her words very carefully as Kara glances at her, wary. “But… Carter and I usually spend Halloween together. I’d have to bring him, and I don’t… that many new people all in one room, I’m not sure how well he’d cope with that.”

“Oh, god, of course. _Stupid_ , of course I don’t want to make him uncomfortable, I should have thought of that.”

“It’s okay,” Cat murmurs, surprised by the reaction because she’s just so _unused_ to anyone wanting to look out for her son so carefully – it only makes her fall for Kara even more. “Perhaps… if he were to meet your sister before the party, he might be more at ease.”

“Okay,” Kara nods. “Is that… okay though? I don’t want to… I don’t want to overstep, with you. Or to make Carter uncomfortable. I want you to meet my friends and my family – both of you – but if that’s something that’s going to be difficult for him, then I’m more than willing to wait.”

“I’ll ask him how he feels about it,” Cat replies, touched by her open concern, and her caution. “And I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. For what it’s worth, though, I think he and Alex would get along great. She likes all that sciency stuff he’s so good at, she works in a lab and she plays a ridiculous amount of video games.”

“Sounds familiar,” Cat says with a grin, because she’s sure Carter will love nothing more than quizzing Kara’s sister on all of those things, if he’s as at ease around Alex as he always has been around Kara.

“And… are you okay with it? Meeting everyone?”

“It makes me nervous,” Cat admits, because she’s not fond of lies and she doesn’t ever want to drive Kara away with them, and she’s never been great at the ‘meet the family’ thing. She’s too abrasive for that, especially when she’s anxious, and she knows she will be with Kara’s family, because she’s already so terrified of messing things up. “But if I’m going to be in your life – and I very much want to be.” Kara’s lips curve into one of those slow smiles that brightens her whole face. “Then I want to get to know the people who are important to you. I just… I don’t want to make a bad impression.”

“You couldn’t do that if you tried,” Kara scoffs, but Cat just looks away, because she’s done just that in the past – her ex’s parents nearly hadn’t come to their wedding because they’d disapproved so highly of their relationship. “Hey, look it’ll be fine, okay? They’ll love you, I know it.” Cat doesn’t answer, but she bites down the worry she feels settling in her gut, because this night isn’t over yet and she doesn’t plan to ruin it by ruminating on the future, on the fact that one disastrous conversation with Kara’s sister might just end this before it can ever truly begin.

Cat can feel the nervous energy thrumming through Kara’s body when they reach their apartment complex, as she pulls the car into her parking space and turns off the ignition before she’s pushing her door open and hopping outside.

Cat follows, taking Kara’s hand as they walk towards the elevator, pressing the button for their floor before pulling Kara closer, sighing happily when the other woman tangles a hand in her hair and brings their lips together for what feels like the thousandth time that night.

Usually, Kara kisses her like she’s scared she might break, soft and reverent, but tonight her lips move with more urgency, her hand tight in Cat’s hair. She moans when Kara presses her back against the wall, solid at her back and Kara hot at her front, and she slips her hands into the back pockets of Kara’s jeans and _squeezes_ until Kara slots a thigh between her legs for her to arch against, and Cat doesn’t think she’s ever felt so alight from so little contact.

She knows she’s soaked through her underwear from Kara’s earlier teasing, and she lets her head drop back against the wall behind her when that sinful mouth latches on to the side of her neck once more.

Kara’s just rough enough to be perfect, and Cat can’t wait until she’s out of this stupidly restricting turtleneck so that Kara's mouth can explore even more. She wonders what that tongue, as it flicks against the shell of her ear, will feel like against her clit and her knees nearly buckle at just the thought, fingers digging into Kara’s ass, and when she grinds her thigh against Cat’s centre her eyes roll back into her head and Kara’s name escapes her lips as a breathless gasp.

Kara groans at the sound, nips at the skin of her neck and Cat arches shamelessly against her, the pressure almost enough to alleviate the sharp throb between her thighs but not _quite_ , and when the elevator doors ding open Cat is almost tempted to press the button to take them back down again because she’s not sure her legs are steady enough to keep her upright for the long walk down the hall.

She manages it, just barely, with Kara’s hand at her back. When they reach both of their doors, Kara pauses in the middle of the hallway, looking between the two of them hesitantly.

“Invite me in,” Cat murmurs, taking the decision out of Kara’s hands – she looks surprised, glancing towards Cat’s door once more. “I rather like,” Cat says then, stepping forward until she and Kara are chest-to-chest, close enough to see how dark those eyes are, the stormy blue of a tumultuous sea, “the idea,” she continues, hands sliding up Kara’s chest and fingers curling over her shoulders, leaning up on her tiptoes to breathe her next words against Kara’s lips, “of letting you ravage me in that bed of yours.” Kara’s breath stutters against her lips, and Cat smiles.

“Do you have any idea,” she continues, voice low and husky and filled with the pulsing desire that she can feel racing through her veins, “how many times I’ve imagined you doing just that since the day you painted me? How many times I’ve thought about the way you looked at me, and slipped a hand between my legs and made myself come with your name on my lips?”

Kara’s answer is a whimper, and then she’s kissing Cat once more, and this time it’s blistering, leaves her weak-kneed and dazed, and Kara only pulls away long enough to jam her key into her door and push it open, dragging Cat inside and pressing her against it the second it’s closed.

“I thought about it too,” Kara murmurs into her ear as her hands tug at the thin belt securing Cat’s jacket around her waist, undoing it with deft fingers and then pushing it from her shoulders. “Dreamt about it, you lying in my bed, wondering what you’d look like when I touched you.”

Her voice is rough, her teeth teasing at Cat’s earlobe as she settles a hand beneath Cat’s sweater, hot against the skin of her stomach before it moves up and up and up, fingertips dragging over Cat’s ribs before she cups one of her breasts in her palm and squeezes.

“I couldn’t stop imagining the look on your face.” Kara’s breath is hot on her skin, breathing laboured as she dips searching fingers beneath the cup of Cat’s bra and teases at her nipple. “The way you’d _sound_.” Cat groans as Kara’s fingers _tug_ , bolt of heat shooting straight between her thighs. “And,” Kara breathes against her ear, little more than a quiet whisper, “I got myself off to the thought of you, too.”

God, just the _thought_ of that makes Cat dizzy – sweet and innocent Kara Danvers dipping a hand between her thighs, wet and aching and thinking of _her_ , and she moans again as Kara’s lips press against her throat, nipping lightly at her skin.

“Can I take this off?” Kara asks, tugging on the hem of Cat’s turtleneck, and Cat’s response is to curl her hands around it and yank it over her head, taking the tank top she’s wearing beneath with it, too, leaving her only in a red lace bra that makes Kara’s eyes go wide. “You’re so beautiful,” Kara murmurs, lips brushing just once against Cat’s before she’s ducking her head, kissing a wet trail down Cat’s sternum until she’s reaching a hand behind Cat’s back, fingers settling at the clasp of her bra.

“You can get rid of that, too,” Cat breathes when she pauses, and Kara’s fingers twist, Cat shifting to let the bra fall to the floor, and her eyes slam closed when Kara’s mouth is quick to kiss her breasts. “ _God_ , Kara.” Kara hums against her, and Cat winds a hand through blonde waves when Kara catches a nipple between her lips and sucks, and when she grazes it with her teeth, biting harder when Cat gasps, her knees nearly buckle and it’s only Kara’s hand settled at her hip that keeps her from falling.

She feels overdressed, with Kara still fully-clothed while she’s half-naked and aching, and her fingers scramble at the shoulders of Kara’s leather jacket as she kisses her way across Cat’s chest, pushing it down her arms as Kara presses a bite to the side of her other breast. She sucks hard enough to leave a mark, and Cat groans at the feeling of it, arching into Kara’s mouth and fisting a hand in her hair, holding her there as her teeth press harder.

Kara pushes the boundary between pleasure and pain perfectly, and Cat feels herself grow wetter as Kara releases her skin, tongue laving across the mark she’d left behind to soothe some of the sting.

“Okay?” Kara glances up at her, eyes dark and wide, and Cat tugs at her hair until she’s close enough for Cat to kiss her, desperate and messy.

“God, yes,” she breathes against Kara’s lips when they part, and Kara grins before kissing her again, fingers curling through the belt loops of Cat’s leather pants as she tugs them backwards, leading them effortlessly towards her bedroom, shedding her jacket and t-shirt as they go.

Cat’s hands are greedy as Kara’s skin is revealed to her, dragging her fingertips over the abs that she’s been dreaming about ever since she’d first seen Kara in her running gear, until she’s opening the clasp of Kara’s bra and palming both of her breasts, thumbs sliding over her nipples and making Kara shudder against her, moaning into Cat’s mouth.

As the back of Cat’s knees hit Kara’s bed, her hands drop to the button of Kara’s jeans, toying with it as she leans away from Kara’s mouth and raising a questioning eyebrow – Kara nods, and Cat pops the button open, hands tugging the impossibly tight jeans down long legs.

“How the hell did you even get these things on?” Kara growls against Cat’s lips as she tries to return the favour and free Cat from her own pants, and she chuckles and bats Kara’s hands away, taking a step back and peeling them off.

“It’s an acquired skill,” she tells Kara as she kicks them away, and then Kara is reaching for Cat’s hand, settling herself down in the centre of her bed and tugging Cat on-top of her.

She sighs at the feeling, bare skin against bare skin, and she straddles Kara’s hips and sits back on her heels, admiring the sight of Kara spread between her thighs, hair mussed from Cat’s hands and looking up at her through hooded eyes.

She’s a vision, and Cat can scarcely believe that she’s real.

Kara moves, then, palms settling on the bed behind her as she pushes herself upright before she wraps one arm around Cat’s waist, the other cupping the side of her face as she kisses her, and Cat’s hands curl around Kara’s shoulders, hips rocking against her stomach – she wonders if Kara can feel how wet she is beneath the lace.

Judging from the strangled moan, Cat guesses that the answer to that is a resounding yes.

She pushes Kara back against the bed, leans down to press a line of heated kisses to her neck, tongue swirling in the hollow of her throat, Kara’s moans rumbling beneath her lips. She wants to kiss every inch of the lean body beneath her, find all the spots that drive Kara wild, and she thinks, as she circles her tongue around one of Kara’s nipples and feels her arch against her, crying Cat’s name, that she could spend hours doing nothing but this, lavishing Kara with attention until she was a breathless mess beneath her.

“Cat,” Kara pants as she drags her lips from one breast to the other, hand sliding over the planes of Kara’s stomach, muscles jumping beneath her palm as she toys with the edge of her underwear. “ _Please_.”

Cat hums against Kara’s skin, because oh, she likes the way she sounds when she begs, desperate and needy, rewards her by dragging her hand lower, cupping Kara’s sex over her underwear and grinding the heel of her palm against her clit.

Kara rocks against her, and god, she’s so wet already, the insides of her thighs slick with it, and Cat groans, presses a bite to the underside of one of Kara’s breasts before leaning back, peeling her underwear down toned thighs and admiring the sight of Kara, completely bare, as she kicks them free from her legs.

She ducks her head to kiss Kara’s lips as she slides a hand between her thighs, sighing as two fingers explore wet heat, Kara clutching at the back of her neck with one hand, the other wound in her hair. Her hips jump beneath Cat’s touch when she finds her clit, circling idly before sliding away and down, teasing at Kara’s entrance with a single digit.

“Please,” Kara whines again, breath hot on Cat’s lips, “I-I need – _fuck_.” Cat bites her lip at the curse, the first time she’s ever heard it from Kara, as she slips inside of her with one finger, adding another when Kara’s hips rock hard against her.

“You feel so good,” Cat breathes into Kara’s ear as she starts to work her fingers inside her, curling them and making Kara’s back arch off the bed. “So hot.” She presses an open-mouthed kiss to the side of Kara’s neck as she shifts to throw one leg over Cat’s hip, using the leverage to grind her hips against her hand. “So wet.” Her teeth nip at Kara’s pulse point, thrumming beneath her lips, and she whimpers, clutching to Cat more tightly. “So perfect.”

When she adds a third finger, she watches Kara throw her head back, lips parting in a perfect ‘o’. The room is quiet aside from the sound of their laboured breathing, Kara’s quiet moans, and the obscene sound of Cat’s fingers moving between her thighs.

As the movement of Kara’s hips against her become more erratic, Cat shifts to angle her hand, palm pressing against her clit with every drive of her fingers, and when she feels Kara’s thighs start to tremble she leans down to press their lips together, kissing her name from Kara’s lips when she comes.

And oh, she’s so beautiful when she does, back arching and toes curling into the mattress, clenching around Cat’s fingers as she rides out the wave. She slows but never stops the movement of her hand, even when Kara’s eyes blink open, pupils blown and cheeks flushed, a thin sheen of sweat on her skin – instead she curls them until Kara curses, driving her into a second, stronger orgasm that leaves her breathless.

As Kara’s still quaking with the aftershocks, Cat kisses her way down her body, grazing her teeth over Kara’s hipbone and pressing a biting kiss to the skin there, leaving a mark for Kara to remember the night by the morning.

Fingers tighten in her hair when Cat’s tongue swipes along the crease of Kara’s thigh, nose skimming across tight curls before she presses an open-mouthed kiss to Kara’s other thigh, feeling the muscles jumping beneath her mouth.

She slips her fingers free and spreads Kara’s thighs apart with her hands before she ducks her head, running her tongue along the length of Kara’s sex and groaning when she soaks her chin, hips grinding against her face as a string of breathless moans escape Kara’s lips above her.

Cat has imagined this a dozen times, what Kara would feel like beneath her mouth, but it pales in comparison to the reality, to Kara’s hips shifting restlessly against her as Cat explores her with lips and tongue, the taste of her heavy on Cat’s tongue and leaving her craving more.

She wraps her lips around Kara’s clit only when she begs, only when Cat has slid her tongue along every crease and fold, only when Kara is desperate and grinding against her, and when she sucks strong thighs press against her cheeks as Kara’s hand forms a fist in her hair, trapping her in place as she comes for the third time, Cat’s name falling from her lips like a prayer.

When Kara’s thighs release her, falling limply back onto the bed, Cat wipes at her mouth with her arm and crawls her way back up Kara’s body – she’s spent, chest rising and falling rapidly with the force of her breaths, flushed from her cheeks to the top of her breasts, and Cat had thought she looked beautiful before but god, it’s nothing compared to the way she looks like this, sweaty and sated and looking up at Cat with eyes that can barely stay open.

“That…” Kara trails off, opts to curl a hand around the back of Cat’s neck and kiss her, instead, and Cat groans when her tongue dips into Cat’s mouth, chasing the taste of herself on Cat’s lips. “You’re amazing,” she murmurs when they part, pressing their foreheads together and breathing the words against her lips. “And I think you might have broken me.”

Cat laughs, delighted, and moves to shift to one side – but is promptly trapped in place by Kara’s hands on her hips.

“Where are you going?”

“Well, you look pretty exhausted,” Cat says, looking down at her with fond eyes. “So I was going to give you some time to recover.”

“Not necessary.” Kara’s hands slide over her ribs to her breasts, and Cat makes a pleased noise at the back of her throat, arching into the touch. “I mean, I don’t think I can move right now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t.” Her hands fall back to Cat’s hips and tug as she raises an eyebrow, and Cat catches her meaning and is only too eager to slip her underwear off and shuffle up the bed until she’s settling a thigh on either side of Kara’s head.

Kara doesn’t have a headboard, so Cat settles for resting her hands against the wall, instead – at the first touch of Kara’s tongue against her, hot and not at all hesitant, her knees nearly buckle and she falls forward, fingers scrabbling at the plaster because oh, _god_ , that feels amazing, and she doesn’t ever want Kara to stop.

From the way Kara moans against her, hands wrapping around Cat’s thighs and tugging her further down, she thinks the feeling is probably mutual.

x-x-x

Cat wakes to the feeling of sunlight, warm on the bare skin of her back where the sheets have fallen down to her waist, shining through Kara’s bedroom window, neither one of them remembering to draw the drapes closed before they’d collapsed beside one another in the early hours of the morning.

And oh, what a _night_ it had been. Cat stretches, groaning when her joints protest, and there’s a delicious ache between her thighs that makes her wonder if she’s going to be able to walk in a straight line for the rest of the day but god, it was worth it.

Worth it to feel Kara’s mouth, hot against her skin, worth it to feel her fingers, driving deep and feeling oh so perfect inside her, worth it to feel Kara come undone over and under and around her, again and again and again.

Cat’s always had a rather insatiable appetite when it came to sex, and very few of her previous partners had ever been able to keep up, but Kara seems rather up to the challenge, if last night is anything to go by, and she really does seem to be the perfect woman and Cat doesn’t know how she got to be so fucking lucky.

She blinks her eyes open to find that Kara is still fast asleep beside her. She’s lying flat on her front, one arm tucked beneath the pillow that her head, turned towards Cat, is resting on, and her other arm flung over Cat’s waist.

She’s beautiful, blonde hair splayed across the pillow, eyes closed and face relaxed in sleep, and there are thin red lines from Cat’s nails on her back and purpling marks on her hips from Cat’s teeth littered across smooth, tanned skin, and Cat can barely believe that Kara is _real_.

When she shifts out from under Kara’s arm, she mumbles something in her sleep but doesn’t wake, even when Cat crawls out of the bed and makes use of Kara’s en-suite, wincing at the aches and pains that only a night filled with many, _many_ orgasms can bring, and knows that it’s all so, so worth it.

Her eyes are bright in Kara’s bathroom mirror, hair a tangled mess from Kara’s hands, and there are a few bruises on her own body, too, a souvenir of all the places that Kara had worshipped in the muted darkness of an early Sunday morning.

When she strides out of the door and back into Kara’s bedroom, it’s to discover that she hasn’t yet moved, and Cat shakes her head wryly, wishing that she could sleep so deeply. She’d never been a good sleeper, even when she was a child – she’d used to dream of her father and wake up with tears on her face, and the boarding school dormitory had always been so _loud_ , too many things keeping her awake late into the night until she was too tired to fight the exhaustion anymore. Now she worked too much to ever catch more than the necessary handful of hours she needed to be a functional human being (after several lattes, at least), but glancing at Kara, sprawled out and breathing evenly, she wishes that she could lie in past nine a.m. at the weekend.

She has two hours before she needs to pick Carter up, and she decides that it’s unacceptable that Kara sleep the morning away, so she crawls back onto the bed, settles a knee on either side of Kara’s ass and a hand beside each of her shoulders, leaning down to press an open-mouthed kiss to the back of her neck.

Kara murmurs something but doesn’t move, so Cat leaves another kiss on the highest nodule of her spine before moving lower, grazing her teeth across a shoulder blade and running her tongue across Kara’s back until she stirs below her, a moan rumbling low in her chest.

“Why are you awake so early?” Kara groans when she wakes, as Cat’s hands are tugging at the sheets covering Kara’s body so that she can trail her mouth lower, Kara stretching her arms over her head and letting out a happy sigh as Cat’s mouth travels to the small of her back.

“This is late for me,” Cat murmurs before she nips at the supple flesh of Kara’s ass – she moans, hips shifting against the bed, and Cat smirks against her skin, pulling away only when the skin has reddened beneath her mouth. “I take it you’re not a morning person.”

“No.” Cat shifts to kneel between Kara’s legs, tongue trailing down over the back of her thigh. “But god, if you wake me up like this every morning then I might be.” Her breathing is laboured, her thighs spreading for Cat’s mouth as she presses a kiss to the inside of one of them, and Cat chuckles against her skin, Kara shuddering beneath her.

“Oh yeah?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Kara hisses as Cat’s hands urge her up onto her knees. She’s already wet, thighs trembling as Cat parts her with her thumbs and swipes her tongue against Kara’s clit. Her hips jump, back arching as she presses back against Cat’s mouth, and she hums happily and curls her tongue in a sharp circle until Kara cries out above her.

She works Kara up with wide, slow strokes of her tongue against slick flesh, until Kara is breathless and desperate, hands splayed on either side of her and fisted in her sheets as she rocks her hips against Cat’s lips. She slides two fingers inside of her as she focuses her attention on her clit, curling and curling until Kara cries out, back arching as she stiffens, and Cat helps her through her first orgasm and tips her into a second, pulling away only as Kara’s knees give out and she collapses back onto her mattress, spent.

“Please wake me up like this every single morning for the rest of my life,” Kara breathes as Cat wipes at the back of her mouth and kisses her way back up to Kara’s neck, chuckling quietly.

“Nothing would please me more,” she murmurs, resting her weight on Kara’s back as she presses a kiss to Kara’s cheek, and she _means_ it because Kara is gorgeous like this, flushed and sated, hair damp on the back of her neck and eyes still closed as she desperately tries to catch her breath. “Do you have any food in your kitchen?”

“Why?” Kara asks, cracking an eye open at the question.

“Because I’m hungry,” Cat replies, mouth still pressed close to Kara’s ear. “And knowing your appetite, you are, too, and I want to make you breakfast.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I _want_ to,” Cat repeats, and Kara shifts to brush a gentle kiss against her lips.

“I could do it.”

“You told me you couldn’t cook,” Cat points out, sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. “And I don’t want to miss a week of work with food poisoning.” She grins when Kara pouts. “And you look like you could use some time to recover.”

“I don’t know what I have.” Cat shifts to allow Kara to turn over, blinking up at Cat with sleepy eyes. “Alex did my grocery shopping for me because apparently I ‘can’t be trusted not to just buy junk food’.” She rolls her eyes as she does the impression of her sister, and Cat’s smile widens. “So there could be anything.”

“I’ll go and see what I can rustle up.” She leans down to press one last lingering kiss to Kara’s lips before shifting off the bed. She finds her underwear from the night before on Kara’s floor and tugs it on, stealing an over-sized t-shirt that’s hanging on the back of a chair and smirking when Kara eyes her hungrily as she slips it over her head.

She can still feel the heat of those eyes on her as she wanders through Kara’s apartment towards the kitchen, shivering at the feeling of cool air on so much bare skin. Their clothes from last night, torn off in their haste to fall into Kara’s bed, litter the floor, and Cat picks them up as she goes, folding them neatly and resting them over the back of Kara’s couch before she wanders into the kitchen and cracks open Kara’s fridge, standing with her hands on her hips as she peruses its contents.

There isn’t a great deal in there, and Cat shakes her head – if she’s going to be staying over here more often, _she’s_ going to do the girl’s grocery shopping, never mind her sister. At least there’s eggs, Cat supposes, because she can work with those. She takes the carton out of the fridge and sets it on the counter as she riffles through Kara’s cupboards, wondering if she has any flour, and humming happily when she discovers that she does.

It’s unopened, of course, and the eggs are untouched, and the milk Cat grabs from the fridge to complete her pancake recipe is, too, though she double-checks the label to ensure that it’s still in date before she goes in search of a bowl to mix everything in.

Kara pads into the room as Cat’s heating up oil in a frying pan she’d discovered, still in its wrapping, wearing a robe that’s short enough to let Cat know that she’s not wearing a thing beneath it – the sight makes her mouth water, and she wishes they could stay locked up in this apartment all day long.

“Pancakes?” Kara asks as Cat spoons some of the mixture into the pan, sizzling quietly, and Cat hums as Kara slides strong arms around her waist and pulls Cat into her chest, resting her head on her shoulder. “I love pancakes.”

“Considering your complete adoration of anything and everything that’s both sweet and unhealthy, I thought they were a safe bet.”

“You thought right.” Kara’s mouth starts doing _very_ distracting things to her neck, then, and Cat groans, tilting her head to one side and fighting to keep her eyes open as Kara’s tongue trails lazily over her skin, teeth nipping at the juncture where Cat’s neck meets her shoulder, a spot that never fails to make her knees weak.

“If you keep doing that,” Cat says, breathless as Kara slips a hand beneath her shirt to catch a nipple between her fingers, lips still hot on her neck, “then I’m going to burn these.”

“We can make more,” Kara breathes, and Cat has the sense to turn off the stove before turning in Kara’s hold and slinging her arms around her neck, moaning into the heated kiss that Kara presses to her lips as she backs her against the kitchen counter.

She lifts Cat onto it easily, stepping between her thighs and Cat wraps her legs around Kara’s waist, crossing her ankles at the small of back and holding her close as her tongue licks at the back of Cat’s teeth and a hand ghosts up the inside of her thigh.

Kara finds her hot and wet, slips two fingers inside easily and groans at the way she feels. They’re pressed too tightly together for Kara to be able to move much, but she angles her hand to press her thumb against Cat’s clit and uses her hips to press her fingers deeper, and Cat’s worked up enough from touching Kara earlier that it doesn’t take long for her to come, one hand clutching at her shoulder and the other at the back of her neck as Kara’s mouth presses heated kisses against the side of her neck.

She catches Kara’s wrist to still her fingers when she feel like she can breathe again, laughing when Kara pouts as Cat pulls her hand away.

“I have to pick Carter up in…” She glances at the clock on the wall behind them. “Just under an hour. And I need to eat and shower and I _really_ wish you and I could spend the whole day in bed but…”

“I get it.” Kara gives her one last kiss before stepping away. “I can make the pancakes while you shower, if you want.”

“Can you be trusted with that?”

“ _Yes_. They’re one of the few foods I can make.” Cat just raises an eyebrow, and Kara rolls her eyes. “You put the batter in the pan and then you flip it, can’t go wrong. Go clean up.” Cat makes a show of reluctantly leaving, making Kara roll her eyes skyward once more as she shoos her away.

She grabs her turtleneck on the way to Kara’s bathroom, turning on the shower and sighing when she steps under the spray, letting it ease away the ache in her muscles. She’s a pro at being able to clean up quickly, from those mornings where her hangovers are particularly dreadful and she can’t quite force herself out of bed quick enough to be able to take things at her usual leisurely pace, and she’s back in Kara’s kitchen in her clothes from last night, smelling of Kara’s shampoo and shower gel and with her damp hair curling around her shoulders in less than twenty minutes.

She finds Kara already devouring the mountain of pancakes in-front of her (Cat had doubled her usual recipe for just her and Carter), and she pushes a plate towards Cat when she reappears.

“That was quick.”

“I’ve had a lot of years to practice.” Cat eyes the pancake she picks up on her fork warily, and Kara levels her with a mock glare across the table.

“They’re not gonna kill you, I promise.” They’re actually pretty good, and Kara smiles happily when Cat tells her that, lighting up the whole damn room. She manages to get maple syrup on her bottom lip, and Cat is only too happy to curl a hand around her jaw and kiss it away.

They pull apart only when there’s a knock on the door, Cat raising an eyebrow when she glances over Kara’s shoulder as the knock comes again. “Expecting company?”

“It’s probably Alex,” Kara mumbles. “We usually go out for lunch on a Sunday – she probably called to ask me if we were still on for today but I haven’t checked my phone. Hang on!” She raises her voice to call that over her shoulder.

“Why?” Comes a voice through the wood, and even though Cat has met Alex only a handful of times, she can tell there’s a smirk on the other woman’s mouth. “Are you naked in there?”

“Oh my god,” Kara groans, and Cat laughs, delighted. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Cat replies with a smile. “I should probably be getting going anyway. I… Carter and I had plans to get ice cream after I picked him up, if you and Alex aren’t busy, perhaps you might like to join us? I’ll have to check with Carter that he’s okay with it, but I don’t see why he wouldn’t be.”

“Are you sure?” Kara looks so hopeful, and Cat nods, leaning over for one last kiss before she pushes herself to her feet. “I don’t want to intrude…”

“You wouldn’t be.” Cat takes her hand and squeezes gently. “Carter adores spending time with you. Unless you’d rather spend the day with your sister?”

“No, no, I see her all the time.”

“Rude,” they both hear from the door, and Kara turns to stride over to it, yanking it open to find her sister nearly falling into the apartment, having been leaning against the door.

“Know what else is rude?” Kara asks, hands on her hips as Cat hovers behind her shoulder. “Eavesdropping.” 

“Sorry,” Alex shrugs, though she doesn’t particularly look it, as she eyes Cat curiously. “I’d ask how your date went, but I’m guessing well seeing as you’re still here and my sister’s barely wearing any clothes.” Kara groans as Alex smirks, and Cat just glances between the two of them with amusement glittering in her eyes. “And for the record,” Alex addresses Cat then, meeting her gaze over Kara’s shoulder. “I’d love to spend some time with you, and with Carter, too. I’d like to get to know the two people she can’t manage to stop talking about for more than five seconds.”

“I hate you,” Kara hisses, and Cat doesn’t need to look at her to know that she’ll be blushing something fierce. “Please don’t listen to a thing my sister says,” Kara whirls, and sure enough her cheeks are tinged pink. “She likes to embarrass me at every available opportunity.”

“And this opportunity is just too good to miss,” Alex says cheerfully, clapping Kara on the shoulder and making her grimace.

“I’ll go and collect Carter,” Cat says dryly as she watches Kara glare at her sister, Alex just grinning widely back at her. “And I’ll let you know what he wants to do?”

“Sure.” Kara catches her wrist as Cat makes to move past her, bag already on her shoulder, pulling into a kiss that’s sweet enough to make her melt.

Before the door shuts behind her, she hears Alex whisper ‘oh, you have _so_ got it bad, Kara, I can see _actual_ heart eyes on your face’, and Kara’s dark mutter of ‘I am _actually_ going to kill you’ has her smiling all the way to Carter’s friend’s house. 

She decides to walk, because even though it’s cool outside the sun is shining and she’s so busy that it’s rare she gets the chance to even _be_ outside, taking her time instead of being rushed off her feet, and she makes it there perfectly on time, knocking on the door at eleven sharp.

“Hey, Cat.” Carter’s friends’ Mom answers the door with a warm smile – she’s one of the rare mother’s at Carter’s school that Cat can actually stand to talk to for longer than ten minutes. “Come in, I’ll go and get the boys.”

She waits in the entryway while Marnie wanders off, and Carter comes bounding down the hall a few moments later, bag on his shoulder and a wide smile on his face.

“Hey, Mom!”

“Hi, sweetheart.” He wraps his arms around her waist in a hug, and she smooths down his unruly curls with one hand. “Did you have fun?”

“I did.”

“And did you behave yourself?”

“He was a delight,” Marnie answers for him, hands resting on her son’s shoulders. “And we’d love to have him back anytime.” Cat smiles warmly, because she’s just so _glad_ that last night went well for him, his first night out of the house at a friend’s (his first _friend_ , really), and she wonders if this is the start of a turning point for him.

“I’ll see you at school on Monday, Carter?” His friend, Jaime, asks in a quiet voice – Cat suspects one of the reasons they get along so well is because they’re both so similar.

“Yeah.” Carter’s smile is wide, and Cat looks down at him with fond eyes. “Thank you for having me, Mrs Parker.”

“You’re more than welcome, Carter.” Cat reaches for the door handle behind her and pulls it open. “Bye, Cat, I’m sure we’ll see you again soon.”

Carter’s practically bouncing as he walks along beside her, Cat steering him towards the park because it’s a much prettier walk than the concrete of the city streets that she’d walked through to get there, chattering away all about his night playing video games and watching superhero movies.

“How did your date with Kara go?” He asks when they pause on a bench, Cat stretching out in the sunlight as Carter watches the dogs playing on the field in-front of them with bright, wide eyes. “You didn’t mess it up, right?”

“No, Carter,” Cat says with a laugh. “I didn’t mess it up. It was… wonderful.”

“She was so nervous, you know,” he tells her, matter-of-factly, and Cat smiles because she can just imagine her approaching Carter and asking for advice, the way she’d stumble over her words and her hands would shake. “I know you were, too.” He peers up at her, and Cat just stares back, because she’s not about to admit that she’d been up half the night before worrying that she’d do _something_ to upset Kara and make her never want to take her out ever again. “What did you do?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know the answer to that already,” Cat replies, nudging his shoulder with her own. “I know you helped her pick out the movie. And… thank you.”

“That’s okay,” he shrugs, scuffing at the ground with his shoe. “I wanted to make sure you had fun.”

“You really like Kara, huh?” It’s wonderful, but it also worries her, in a way, because things are still so new and so, so many things could still go wrong, and she wonders what it might do to Carter if things between them don’t work out.

But it’s too late for her to do anything about that now – and maybe it always has been, because Carter had connected with Kara the moment they’d met, and Cat doesn’t think she’d change the way she’s seen him light up because of her, and his art, since that day for anything in the world.

“I do,” Carter agrees quietly. “She’s awesome, and she doesn’t talk to me like I’m an idiot like some adults do. She talks to me like… we’re equal, like a friend.” Cat smiles softly, because it’s just one of the many reasons why she’s fallen for Kara so hard. “And I know that that worries you, too.” Carter glances up from the floor at that, and Cat is astounded by his astuteness. “And I’m not stupid, you always used to tell me when I asked about you and Dad that relationships are difficult and things don’t always work out. I know that might happen with Kara, too. But I don’t want you to let that hold you back, Mom, cause you deserve to be happy, and Kara _makes_ you happy, and she makes me happy, too.”

“You’re such a good boy,” Cat murmurs, voice catching because she’s more affected than she will ever let Carter know. “My good boy.” She wraps an arm around his shoulder and pulls him into a hug, already rueing the day when he will decide that he’s too old for his mother’s hugs in public. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“Okay?” He eyes her warily, and she leaves her arm around his shoulder when he leans back.

“You know that Kara has a sister, right? A foster sister?” He nods. “Well, she wants to meet us, and I thought ice cream might be a good time to do that. But you don’t have to if you - ”

“I want to,” he interrupts hastily, eyes lighting up. “I want to see Kara again. And she’s told me stories about her sister, she sounds really cool.” He shows none of the nervousness Cat feels at the thought of spending time with the most important person in Kara’s life, but then, she supposes things are different for her.

She knows that if she doesn’t make a good impression on the sister, then this thing with Kara will probably come screeching to a halt, because she’s already seen how close they are. She’s already spoken to Alex before, true, but… this is different.

This is _official_.

And it terrifies her.

But she calls Kara all the same, and tells her the address of Carter’s favourite ice-cream parlour, and Kara’s voice is excited when she chirps that she’ll be there as soon as possible.

Cat’s always faced things head-on, with her spine straight and a smile on her mouth, and she tells herself that this is no different, it’s just ice cream with her son and her almost-but-not-really-yet girlfriend and her best friend slash sister.

Cat has faced down entire corporations that had sneered down at her for being a woman, confronted whole board rooms that had never believed in her, has fought for her entire life to claw her away to the top of the food chain, but she thinks, as Carter senses her nerves and pulls her into another tight hug, that this might just be one of her most difficult challenges to date.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An advanced warning guys, I'm going away for a few days this weekend so this will be the last update until I get back (probably the 11th or 12th July). 
> 
> Thank you for all the love so far for this story <3

“I do not have _heart eyes_ ,” Kara hisses the second her front door has closed behind Cat, folding her arms across her chest and leaning her shoulder back against the wood as she regards her sister with a level gaze.

“Uh, you do,” Alex replies with a nod. “It’s both sickening and adorable at the same time.” Kara groans, pushing herself away from the door and purposefully knocking into Alex’s shoulder when she passes her on the way to gather up her and Cat’s dishes to wash them. “I haven’t seen you look like that in a long time.”

She’d taken her last break-up hard, and Alex had been the one to pick up the pieces and help her put herself back together again – her eyes now are soft as they look at Kara, a smile on her mouth, and maybe Kara can handle the teasing if it makes Alex this _happy_.

Maybe.

“I haven’t felt like this in a long time,” Kara admits. “It’s terrifying. So do not,” she warns, sternly, “mess this up for me by trying to scare her with one of your ‘if you hurt her I’ll kill you’ speeches.”

“I have to let the woman know not to hurt my baby sister!” Alex exclaims as she leans a hip against the counter beside Kara as she begins to do the dishes, taking a towel and drying them as Kara stacks them beside the sink – it’s a routine they’ve had since they were growing up, Kara washing and Alex drying, and the normalcy of it makes her smile.

“She’s already nervous enough, I don’t need you making it worse.”

“Wait, back up a sec. Cat Grant is nervous about meeting _me_? No freaking way.”

“She is. She knows how important you are to me.” Kara had seen the fear in Cat’s eyes when she’d asked her about Halloween. “And she thinks that if you don’t like her then the two of us won’t work.”

Which is probably a fair assessment. She and Alex have fought before – they are sisters, after all – but they were always there for one another, and if someone they were dating didn’t get along with the other Danvers sister? It never lasted long.

Kara’s praying that she and Cat become fast friends.

She thinks they might – Cat Grant, head of CatCo is very different than the woman Kara sees, the woman behind closed doors. That Cat is light and her smiles are so bright, and she’s kind and funny and so endlessly _smart_ , and Kara knows that Alex will respond to each of those things. She also knows that Alex already respects Cat, and her rise to power, and she can’t see a reason why Cat wouldn’t like Alex in return.

She’s been nervous before, whenever she’d brought someone home, but this time it feels _different_ , and she thinks it might be because she feels more for Cat than she has for anyone else ever before. It’s different and it’s exhilarating and it’s terrifying, and Kara doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to get enough of the way it makes her feel, head spinning, heart racing and knees weak.

“I’ll be on my best behaviour,” Alex says, though Kara swears there’s a hint of sarcasm in her voice – when Kara throws her a sharp look, she raises her hands in-front of her, a gesture of peace. “I will, I promise. The last thing I want to do is screw this up for, especially with how long it took for her to admit she had feelings for you. I don’t want to send her skittering away.”

“She’s not a baby deer.”

“She sure as hell seems to act like one, around you.” Kara just rolls her eyes. “But if you think I’m not gonna warn her about breaking your heart, baby sister, you have another thing coming. I don’t want to see you as crushed as you were after Ashley left ever again.”

“Just… be nice?” Kara pleads, and Alex nods. “And be especially nice to Carter, okay? If he doesn’t get along with you…”

“Kids _love_ me, Kara, don’t worry. And he’s a science buff, right? I can work with that. I’ll win him over in two seconds flat.” Kara hopes she does, because she knows Alex and Carter making friends will set Cat at ease. “So,” Alex asks, in her best conspiratorial tone as Kara finishes the last of the dishes and dries her hands on the towel in Alex’s hands. “The date. Tell me all about it.”

“ _All_ about it?” Kara smirks, and Alex makes a face.

“Well, not the sexy parts, obviously. I don’t want to know how many ways the Queen of all Media defiled you last night.” Kara snorts as she heads towards her bedroom, intent on putting on a few more clothes than she’s currently wearing. “But everything else. How was the food?”

“It was amazing, I’m definitely going back there,” Kara tells her, Alex waiting outside her door whilst Kara slips out of the robe and into a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt.

“And Cat?”

“She said it was nice,” Kara shrugs as she runs a brush through her messy hair. “I mean, she only got a salad, but - ”

“Didn’t you once say that if someone ate a salad in-front of you on a first date then you’d just get up and leave right there because that was unacceptable and definitely _not_ a meal?”

“…Maybe.” Alex chuckles, edging her way into the room as Kara settles at her vanity to do her make-up for the day. “But I’ll make an exception for Cat.”

“Yeah, I thought you might. And the movie?”

“Um, well, I didn’t exactly _see_ that much of the movie?” She manages to look at least a little sheepish as Alex shakes her head in mock disapproval. “Your blankets are safe and untainted though, don’t worry.”

“I don’t know whether I trust your word or not.” Kara rolls her eyes again, setting down her eyeliner and stretching her arms above her head, trying and failing to smother a yawn. “What’s the matter, Kara? Late night?” Alex teases, eyes bright, and Kara just makes a face at her.

Because yeah, she’d had a late, _late_ night, and god, it had been amazing. Feeling Cat against her, touching and kissing every inch of her, making her come over and over again, hearing her cry Kara’s name… oh, she could do that every day for the rest of her life and never get bored.

“Stop thinking about having sex with your hot girlfriend in-front of me, please.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kara corrects, not even trying to claim that that’s not exactly what’s on her mind.

“Still haven’t sealed the deal?”

“Not yet,” Kara shrugs. “There’s never been a right time. But I’m not seeing anyone else and I’d be surprised if she was, so… does it really matter?”

“I think there still needs to be a conversation. But, I mean, you’ve only been on one official date. It’s still early, and there’s still time. You don’t wanna rush in to anything.” Kara thinks she’d like nothing more than to do just that, but she bites her tongue and nods, instead.

Cat calls her a moment later, and Kara turns her back to her sister as she presses her phone to her ear, delighted to discover that Carter is more than up for meeting Alex, and she fires off the name of the ice cream parlour to Alex, who nods and assures her that she knows where it is.

“We can take your car, if you want,” Kara tells Alex as she’s slinging a jacket over her shoulders. “I can walk back after.”

“Okay.” She tosses Alex her keys and makes sure she remembers to grab her own before she leaves the apartment.

“Thanks for letting me borrow it, by the way. And for all your help with the planning, I know I’ve been a nightmare this entire week.”

“Maybe a little.” Kara just looks at her sharply as she tries to downplay it, because she knows she’d been _awful_. “And it’s okay, you were allowed to be nervous. She means a lot to you.” Kara smiles softly as she jabs at the button for the elevator with her thumb, because god, that’s true. “I’m just glad everything worked out.”

“Me too,” Kara agrees, because it’s probably the best date she’s ever been on, and she’s just so _overjoyed_ that Cat had enjoyed it, too. She’s still a little dazed that the night had not only gone so well but _ended_ so well, and waking up to Cat’s mouth between her thighs is definitely one of the highlights of her whole entire life so far. “Best behaviour, remember?” Kara reminds Alex as she leads her over towards where she’d left her car last night, and Alex rolls her eyes as she slides behind the wheel.

“Yeah, yeah, scouts honour.” Kara drums her fingers on her thighs as they drive, staring out of the window. It’s a bright, sunny day, the kind that makes her itch for her watercolours so she could paint the sky and the sun settled high on the horizon above the concrete jungle of National City.

It’s so beautiful that it makes her chest ache, just like the woman she’s headed towards. 

“I’m serious, Alex.”

“I know you are, I can tell from the way you’re messing with your hands and biting your lip so hard you’re practically drawing blood.” Kara hasn’t even realised she was doing that, releases it from between her teeth and runs her tongue over the spot that stings. “But it’s going to be fine, okay? Cat’s great, she makes you happy, and her kid seems great, too, so just… calm down. We got this.”

“If you say so.” Alex pulls into a space on the street outside the little café, and Kara tries to remember to breathe as she slips from the car and towards the door, feeling the butterflies from last night return full force as she presses it open and spots Cat and Carter already sitting at one of the booths within.

Carter spots her and waves them over, a bright smile on his face that immediately makes her relax, and she slides into the booth opposite Cat, Alex settling in the booth beside her and opposite Carter. She can tell Cat’s nervous from the tight smile and the way she’s holding tightly to the mug of coffee between her hands, and she stretches a foot beneath the table to run it gently along Cat’s calf in an attempt to calm her down.

“Hi Kara!” Carter chirps as he hands over two menus. “And hi, Alex.” He ducks his head as he glances towards Alex, not quite able to look her in the eye. “It’s nice to meet you properly. Kara’s told me a lot about you.”

“Oh, she has, has she?” Alex glances at Kara, who stares innocently back. “All bad, I’m sure.” Carter chuckles quietly, and Alex’s smile is warm as he dares to raise his head – it’s an expression Kara recognises from her first few months with the Danvers’, after Alex had started to warm to her and began trying to coax her out of her shell. “And it’s nice to meet you, too. Kara talks about you a lot. You’ve made _quite_ the impression on her.” Alex lowers her voice like that part is meant only for Carter’s ears, and he grins, delighted. “Both of you.” She glances towards Cat, who smiles softly in return. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Thank you for joining us.” Cat is still tense, her shoulders set and her spine rigid, but Kara thinks she begins to thaw at Carter’s ease around her sister.

“My pleasure. I’ve been wanting to meet you guys properly for weeks now.”

“Weeks?” Cat arches an eyebrow, and Kara wants to sink under the table and hide, because she can _not_ handle teasing from both Alex and Cat combined.

“Oh yeah, she’s been crushing on you since the day she first moved in,” Alex tells Cat, and Kara sinks down further in her seat and god, this was a terrible idea. “I’ve had to hear all about the adventures of Kara Danvers and her hot neighbour with the adorable son.” She groans, hiding her face in her hands as Carter snickers and Cat’s lips twitch in amusement. “Okay, okay,” Alex continues as she pats Kara on the shoulder, “I’ll stop embarrassing you now, I promise.”

“I don’t believe you,” she mutters through her fingers, and she doesn’t need to look at Alex to know that she’ll have a stupidly pleased grin on her face.

“You can come order ice cream with me if you want, Kara.” Carter is the one to give her an out – though she glances at Cat with a raised eyebrow, because she doesn’t want to leave her alone with Alex if that’s something she’s uncomfortable with. But Cat just gives a tiny nod, imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t looking for it, and Kara pokes at Alex’s shoulder until she moves to let her out.

“Get me something chocolatey,” Alex tells her as Kara’s reaching for her purse.

“Who says I’m getting you _anything_?” She asks, but Alex just makes a face at her and Kara shakes her head, slinging a hand over Carter’s shoulders as she steers him towards the counter. She glances back at the booth when they’re in line, biting at her bottom lip as she watches Cat and Alex talk, aching to know what they’re saying.

Cat’s still got that tension in her posture, clutching her mug like it’s her lifeline, and there’s an almost wary look on her face as she eyes Alex across the table, the both of them sizing the other up. Alex is relaxed, though, one arm against the back of the booth where Kara had just been sat, and Kara watches Cat’s face carefully as she sees her sister’s mouth move.

“It’s a good thing you don’t have laser vision,” Carter says dryly from beside her, and when she tears her gaze away from Cat and her sister it’s to see him blinking up at her with amused eyes. “Cause otherwise you’d be burning a hole into that wall over there.”

“I just… want to check they’re okay.” She glances at them once more, and breathes out a quiet sigh of relief when she sees Cat’s lips curving into a small smile. “And I want to check that my sister isn’t saying anything she shouldn’t.”

“She’s not gonna scare my Mom away, you know,” he tells her softly, and when she looks back at him his eyes are fixed on Cat. “She likes you too much.” He turns his head to meet her gaze, expression earnest and sincere. “So you don’t need to worry.”

“You think so?”

“I _know_ so,” he says it with certainty and a little nod of his head. “I’ve been around my Mom for thirteen years, and I know I don’t remember the first few, and I don’t remember much of my Dad but… I’ve never seen her as happy as she already is with you. Ever. So she’s not going anywhere. Not if you don’t want her to.”

“Oh, Carter,” she reaches out to pull him into a hug before pausing, because he’s usually the one to initiate them and she doesn’t want to upset him, but he just smiles and wraps his arms around her waist tightly, and Kara tries not to let tears spring into her eyes as she holds him close, because she’d never expected to love him so _fiercely_ but god, she does.

She doesn’t know when it had happened. It had crept up on her slowly and then engulfed her whole, like a gradual storm, and as she holds him close and breathes in the soft scent of Cat’s laundry detergent and his shampoo, she realises that he’s become such an integral part of her life in National City that she can scarcely imagine one without him.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promises with her mouth pressed against the top of his head, and he squeezes her tighter, so tight that she can barely breathe. When he pulls back Kara glances up to see Cat watching them with an expression so fond that it makes Kara’s chest ache, and there’s a soft smile on Alex’s lips, too. “And even if things with your Mom don’t work out,” she continues as they edge closer towards the front of the line, “it doesn’t mean that I’m going to forget about you, you know that, right? You’re important to me, too.”

“I know.” His smile is bright and it warms her all the way down to her toes. “I hope you do, though. Work out.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes find Cat’s across the busy room, and in them she sees so much raw emotion, her heart cracked open wide and reflected in pools of green that Kara wants so desperately to drown in. “I do, too.”

“What are you gonna get?” Carter asks as Kara looks back down at the menu in her hands, belatedly realising that she’d been so on edge that she’d barely even glanced at it. “I recommend the chocolate fudge. And the cookie dough. Oh, and the caramel.”

Kara ends up getting a scoop of all three, and a smaller bowl of chocolate fudge for her sister, who beams at her when Kara deposits it in-front of her.

“You don’t share her enormous appetite, then?” Cat asks as she glances between the two very differently sized portions.

“Nope, that’s definitely a Kara thing,” Alex tells her, and Kara grins around a mouthful of cookie dough ice cream. “Though I do share her penchant for junk food.” They have a takeout and pizza night at least once a week – it had used to be over Skype, while they were cities apart, but Kara is happy to be back to the traditions they’d held before she’d moved away. “I _am_ a better cook, though.”

“Well, that’s hardly a challenge though, is it?” Kara asks, because no matter how hard she tries, she’s just always a disaster in the kitchen.

“True. She nearly destroyed our house the first time she tried to make popcorn.”

“What?” Carter looks at her over the table in disbelief. “How?”

“I don’t know, kid,” Alex replies with a shake of her head, Cat looking between the three of them with thinly-disguised amusement. “I really don’t know.”

“It was one time, okay?” Kara defends herself, pouting. “It hasn’t happened since.”

“Well,” Alex starts, and Kara thinks maybe now would be a good time to sink back down in her seat. “It was one time making popcorn. But you nearly set fire to the kitchen several times after that.”

“And _you_ actually set fire to our bedroom,” Kara points out, remembering the panic on Alex’s face as Kara had stared at her with wide, horrified eyes as the flames had started to flare to life, “during one of your little science experiments.”

“God, the look on your face that day was priceless,” Alex chuckles. “The look on Mom’s face, on the other hand, was _not_.”

“She was so mad. You were grounded for a week.” It was the first time she’d heard Eliza raise her voice, and it had been enough to convince her to always be on her best behaviour.

“And Dad thought it was hilarious, he was trying to be all stern but he couldn’t stop laughing.” They both smile softly at the memory of Jeremiah – Kara hadn’t known him for very long, but it had been long enough for her to discover how kind-hearted and loving he was, accepting her into his family with welcoming arms.

Alex had been crushed when they’d lost him, and so had Kara, reliving the nightmare of losing her parents all over again. They’d clung to one another in the dark after the funeral, Kara’s arms wrapped tightly around Alex’s back as her tears soaked into her shirt, whispering stories into her ear just like Alex had done for her, all those times she’d broken down late at night, overcome with memories of her family.

“What did you do?” Carter asks, eyes bright with curiosity.

“Don’t you dare tell him,” Cat warns, though there’s a sparkle in her eyes that makes Kara want to melt. “I don’t want him getting any ideas and singeing our wooden floors.”

“I’d be careful, Mom,” Carter huffs with a roll of his eyes.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Alex whispers, and Kara grins, because she can remember the eager look in her eyes as she’d assured Kara that she had everything under control – and then the smell of burning carpet had flooded her senses as she’d watched Alex scramble for a glass of water to douse the flames.

Not before Eliza stormed into the room with panic on her face.

“I’ve already caught him with a bottle of Coke and some Mentos on my balcony,” Cat says with a shake of her head, as Carter just grins sheepishly.

“I just wanted to see what happened!”

“It’s not that fun,” Alex tells him, because she’d tried that little experiment in their yard once, too – again, Eliza hadn’t been terribly impressed. “There are some really cool – and safe,” Alex adds with a glance towards Cat, “experiments I could show you if you ever came down to the lab, though. I hear that’s something you might enjoy.”

“Really?” Carter’s eyes are bright with excitement as Alex nods. “What do you do?”

Kara lets Alex nerd out over her job with someone who’s more than willing to listen, Carter hanging on to her every word with rapt attention, and turns to meet Cat’s gaze across the table, taking her hand.

“You okay?” She asks, because even though Cat looks at ease, her shoulders relaxed as she leans back in her seat and watches her son with affectionate eyes, she still feels like she has to _check_.

“Mm.” Cat’s fingers curl around hers and squeeze gently. “More than okay. You were right, about the two of them getting along.” She inclines her head towards Carter, who’s stolen a napkin and a pen from Cat’s handbag to draw out an elaborate looking experimental set-up that Alex is eyeing critically.

“I told you. Alex is a science nerd.” Alex sticks her tongue out at her without lifting her gaze from Carter’s drawing, and Kara grins. “She wasn’t too mean to you when we left, was she?”

“Not at all. Though I did get a ‘hurt her and you’ll regret it because remember, I know where you live’ speech.” Cat says that part quietly, but Kara thinks, from the way Alex’s mouth is curled into a half-smirk when she looks her way, that she’s still listening in. “She also said she has a black belt in karate and that she’s not afraid to use it.” Alex’s grin widens. “Is that true?”

“Sadly, yes.” Kara shakes her head in Alex’s general direction. “But I do, too, so I can keep her at bay.”

“You do?”

“Mhm.” Cat looks impressed, and Kara’s lips curl upwards. “Maybe I’ll show you my moves sometime. If you’re lucky.” Cat chuckles quietly, and the sound is music to her ears. They sit there for a while longer, Carter and Alex chattering excitedly away, and Cat and Kara content to just watch them and talk quietly, their fingers intertwined, and Kara feels a rush of contentment at having three of her favourite people all in the same place at the same time.

“Considering today went so well, I’ll ask him about Halloween,” Cat murmurs into Kara’s ear as the four of them are preparing to go their separate ways. “If that’s something you still want?”

“Are you kidding? Of course it is. I mean, I should probably check with Alex first,” she glances towards her sister, who’s leaning her hip against her car and laughing at something Carter’s saying, “but I don’t think she’ll have a problem with it.”

Cat nods, and the kiss she presses to Kara’s lips before she leaves is soft and sweet, and makes her almost melt into a puddle right there on the sidewalk and Kara is more sure than ever that Cat Grant is going to be the death of her.

x-x-x

"Is she going to pass out?" Lucy asks as Kara does another pacing circuit of Alex's apartment, wringing her hands. "She looks like she's going to pass out."

"She's fine," Alex replies, leaning back against her kitchen counter with her arms folded across her chest. "I don't know why she's even stressing. The only new person here is you."

"That is enough reason to stress," Kara interjects, because Lucy can be... a _lot_ , and she and Cat hadn't exactly hit it off last time they'd met, when she'd thought there was something going on between them.  

She knows it's stupid to worry about this – Cat and Alex had hit it off, and Alex and Carter even more so, but there's a part of her that can't help but wonder if it's all just a _little_ too good to be true, and tonight will be the first true test of her relationship with Cat.

God, what's it going to do to her the next time Eliza comes to town?

_That_ nearly makes her pass out.

"Just... be nice, okay?" Kara cautions, and Lucy and Alex just roll their eyes in tandem, because she's already said that at least four times tonight.

"It'll be fine, Kara." James is a calming presence over in one of Alex's armchairs, and she's glad he's here tonight, a familiar face for Cat – even though she claims that spending time with any of her employees outside of work is unacceptable.

She thinks they could be friends, though. She knows that Cat respects him, and she also suspects he had a hand in nudging Cat towards her at the gala, even though she's never dared bring it up to either one of them.

She's quick to answer the door when there's a knock, smile already in place, though it widens at the sight of a beaming Carter and a gorgeous Cat on the other side. She hasn't had the chance to spend much time with either of them over the week, needing to finish off two commissions that had meant putting Carter's lesson on hold, and she knows Cat will always be busy with CatCo.

"Hey Carter. Cat." She's wearing jeans and a black blouse that's got enough buttons open to make Kara's mouth go dry, and she wonders whether they can get away with leaving this party early, falling into bed together after Carter's gone to sleep, because _god_ , she's missed her, she's missed the feel of her skin and the heat of her mouth, and the racy text messages they'd exchanged throughout the week would just never compare to having Cat back in her arms once more.

"HI Kara! Alex." She waves, and Carter bounds forward with a bottle of wine held carefully in his hands. "We brought this for you."

"Thank you, Carter." Kara takes a second to assess Carter at Alex's side, but he's relaxed and smiling so she leaves her sister to do the introductions as she draws Cat into her arms and presses a kiss down onto waiting lips.

"I've missed you so much," she murmurs when they part, resting her forehead against Cat's for one brief moment, content to just breathe her in.

"I've missed you, too." She trails her hands up Kara's arms until they're resting on her shoulders. "Did you get your commissions done?"

"Mhm."

"So you can come over later tonight?" There's a heat in Cat's eyes that makes Kara swallow thickly, her hands tightening their hold on Cat's waist.

"God, yes."

"Good." Cat leans up on her tiptoes and brings Kara into another kiss, this one hotter and harder, just teetering on the line of inappropriate to share in a room full of family and friends. "Because I haven't been able to stop thinking about you all week," Cat admits when they part, her eyes wide and dark. "And I have some things planned."

"Oh yeah?"

"Mhm. I know you said we didn't have to dress up tonight," she continues, her voice low and mouth pressed close to Kara's ear. "But there might be a pair of handcuffs in my handbag that I'd very much like to use on you later."

With that, she drops her hands from around Kara's neck and steps neatly around her, and Kara _gapes_ because god, that might just be one of the hottest things she's ever heard, _Cat_ is the hottest person she's ever met and god, she is definitely going to be the death of her and Kara can't think of a better way to go.

Kara's mind goes blank for several long moments as she hears Cat's heels click into the apartment, and she has to shake her head to clear her very, very dirty thoughts before she can move, spinning around just as Lucy's sticking a hand out towards Cat.

"Lucy Lane."

"Lane?" Cat raises an eyebrow, shooting Kara a look over her shoulder as she shakes Lucy's hand and crap, maybe she should have mentioned that before. "As in Lois Lane?"

"She's my older sister. Don't hold it against me." Cat's lips twitch, and Kara breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

"You don't get along?"

"Not really," Lucy shrugs. "We're very... different." It was why Kara hadn't even thought about the connection, because despite both her and James' closeness to Clark and, by extension, Lois, the two Lane sisters very rarely spent any time together, and definitely not alone. "We had a falling out back when we were still in high school, never really got past it."

"I see," Cat nods, looking thoughtful. "Well, it's nice to meet you. Officially."

"Oh, yeah, well I'm sorry, you know, about the whole trying-to-make-you-jealous thing?"

"That's quite alright," Cat replies, lips twitching into a smile. "It worked, after all." Lucy chuckles, and Kara breathes out a sigh of relief because she thinks this night just might be okay, after all. "And you’re James' fiancée?"

"Mhm," Lucy replies with a nod, turning to glance at James over her shoulder. "And are you going to move anytime soon?"

"I'm good here. Out of the way." Lucy shakes her head, exasperated, and Kara grins. "Glad you could make it, Cat. And it's nice to see you again, Carter."

"You too," Carter answers quietly, still pressed close to Alex's side. He's been texting Alex all week, had visited her lab after school yesterday, and Kara is overjoyed that the two of them are getting along so well – she knows Cat is, too, can see the amazement in her eyes when she glances over towards them.

_It appears that you Danvers' are all experts at charming my son in a single encounter. I don't know how you do it, but... thank you. I've never seen him so bright,_ Cat had texted her afterwards, and Kara had smiled for so long that her cheeks had started to ache.

"You wanna help me pick out a movie?" James asks, nodding towards the stack of DVDs on Alex's coffee table – all had been approved by Cat as Carter-friendly, and Kara knows that Lucy, at the very least, is glad that he's there.

Last year they'd watched all five Saw films in one sitting and she hadn't been able to sleep through the night for a whole week afterwards.

Kara and Alex, completely unfazed by gore or scary movies, had thought it was hilarious.

James, whose hand had nearly been broken by Lucy squeezing it tightly through all the jumpy parts and then had to deal with a sleep-deprived girlfriend for seven days, had not.

"Sure." Kara watches closely as Carter approaches James and peers down at the stack in-front of them. "I like this one."

"Caspar it is." Carter meets James' gaze to smile before darting back to Alex's side, and Cat smiles at him softly, relaxing at Kara's side.

"There are snacks in the kitchen," Alex announces, gesturing to the island at the centre of it with a flourish of her hand. "And drinks in the fridge, help yourself everyone. Anyone for wine?" Lucy is the first to raise her hand, and Cat follows soon after, both of them wandering towards Alex as Kara leans against the back of the couch.

"You okay?" James appears behind her, voice quiet close to her ear.

"Yeah." Kara nods, smiling as she watches Alex completely fail at opening the bottle, much to Lucy's and Cat's amusement.

"You look happy. She does, too." Kara's smile softens, just like it does whenever someone tells her how different Cat is around her. "And I'm happy _for_ you."

"Thanks, James." She turns to flash him her brightest smile, and gets one in return that makes the corners of his eyes crinkle. "You're a good friend."

"I try. And I promised your cousin _and_ your sister that I'd look out for you. That includes vetting any potential girlfriends." Kara chuckles, eyes flitting back to the kitchen as there's a victorious cheer from Carter when Alex finally manages to slip the cork free. "And Cat? You can't do much better than her."

"Not many people would say that," Kara murmurs, because she sees it, and Carter sees it, and she hopes her friends see it, too, but she knows the rest of the world doesn’t feel the same – knows that Cat doesn’t see it herself, not really.

"Not many people have seen the way she looks at you," James murmurs, and Kara feels her heart clench tightly in her chest. "Everyone looks at her and sees the Queen of all Media, the ruthless head of CatCo, but the second her eyes find yours... she's just Cat. She cares about you, and that's good enough for me. Good enough for your sister, too. That's all that matters."

"Thank you. It... it means a lot." Especially in the face of all of Cat's doubts, her utter conviction that this was heading for disaster and that Kara deserved so much more when in reality she doesn't think there _is_ more out there, at least not for her. He wraps an arm around her shoulders, hugging her over the back of the couch and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"Just telling the truth, Kara, like always," he murmurs as he releases her. "Besides, I remember how nervous I was the first time I brought Lucy to meet you guys, and at the end of the night you told me something similar."

"I told you she was the greatest thing that would ever happen to you and to never let her get away." They'd already been dating a while, but it was the first time both Kara and Alex had been in town since – Lucy won them over in a single night, and they've been inseparable ever since. "And I still stand by that today," she adds, noticing Lucy eyeing them curiously – she grins at Kara's words.

"Am I not the best thing to happen to you, too?" She asks, and Kara laughs.

"I think that's gotta be me, babe."

"Uh, no," Alex chimes in, wine glass held in her hand, still leaning against the counter in the kitchen. "It's obviously me."

Kara doesn't answer, but she thinks the way her eyes flit over to where Cat stands with her arms resting over Carter's shoulder, smile curling at the edges of her lips as her eyes meet Kara's, that it's obvious anyway.

"Okay, who's ready for games?" Lucy's eyes light up at Alex's words, and Kara hisses 'remember to be _nice_ ' into her ear because she has a feeling that Lucy’s and Cat's competitiveness might clash and that is the _last_ thing she wants from tonight.

"I'm always nice," Lucy says sweetly, but Kara just stares at her because she has threatened all of their lives at several points over a game of Monopoly and once, though she _claims_ it was a mistake (none of them have ever believed her), she'd actually punched Alex in the face.

Kara wished she'd had her camera pointed on them the moment it happened because god, the look on both their faces was priceless.

They stick with their usual teams – James with Lucy, and Kara with Alex, so that Cat and Carter can go together, and Lucy is the first one to crack open _Taboo_ to kick things off, the movie playing quietly in the background.

Carter is a little nervous his first go, with so many eyes on him, so Kara is quick to draw the attention away by telling James and Lucy about the client she'd met with earlier that day that wanted her to do a mural for the inside of the town hall.

Carter flashes her a grateful smile as he passes the cards over to Kara for her turn, and she ruffles his hair as she passes him, wheeling around in-front of the coffee table to face her sister, Cat's fond eyes never leaving her face.

It makes it _very_ difficult for her to concentrate, because she's still thinking about those whispered words in her ear, and she's going to blame Cat for her and Alex doing much worse than usual, coming in last.

"Get your head in the game, Kara," Alex groans when they get only three points in their final go instead of the five they'd need to beat Cat and Carter to come second. "Stop thinking about your hot not-girlfriend and get yourself together."

Kara shoves at her shoulder as Lucy and Cat both laugh, delighted.

Carter hesitantly asks, upon noticing the console that sits in-front of the TV and the stack of games that sit on the shelf above it, if they can play Mario Kart next. Lucy pouts, because that's not a game she can win as easily, and Kara bows out because she is _terrible_ at that game and there are only four controllers, wandering into the kitchen for some chips as the game starts up behind her.

Cat finds her a few moments later, giving her spot to James, and Kara wraps the hand not covered in cheese dust around her waist and pulls her into her chest.

"Having fun?" She asks as she swallows down her last mouthful and wipes her hand off on a towel, Cat's arms sliding around her waist to keep her close.

"I am," she replies, and Kara's smile is warm because things are going so _well_. "It appears Carter is, too," she adds as there's a whoop from behind them, Carter winning the first race as Lucy groans loudly at finishing last.

"I'm glad. He looks happy." He's beside Alex on the couch, and the fond smile on her sister’s mouth tells Kara that she's fallen for him just as much as Kara has. "Lucy hasn't said anything she shouldn't, has she? I'm sorry about not mentioning who her sister is, I should have thought about it, considering your history with Lois, and - "

"It's okay," Cat cuts her off, tone soothing. "Considering their relationship, I'm not surprised it slipped your mind. She reminds me of Lois, actually. Before... well. When we first met."

"Don't let Lucy hear you say that," Kara warns, because the arguments between the two of them are explosive, when they drop the civility they try to put on for the sake of everyone else.

"It's not a bad thing," Cat murmurs, thoughtful look on her face.

"Maybe not to you," Kara concedes. "But to Luce? She'll probably take it that way."

"In your _face_ , James!" Lucy's cackle echoes around the apartment, and Kara lifts her head to see her celebrating beating him, and laughs quietly.

"Why am I marrying you again?" James asks, and Kara doesn't need to look to know that Lucy's pouting.

"Because you love me," she replies, simply. "And because I'm awesome in bed."

"Lucy!" Kara chastises, because Carter is _right there_ but he's too engrossed in conversation with Alex to have noticed. Lucy at least has the grace to look sheepish. "Sorry," she says that to Cat, who's pressing her lips together to hide her smile.

"I can see why you're friends with her," she murmurs. "She's very..."

"Annoying?"

"Hey!" Lucy protests, though she doesn’t look away from the screen as they start their next race. "Don't listen to a word she says, Cat. I am a delight."

"Sometimes," Kara agrees, and Lucy, already deciding that this is one race that she's lost, turns to stick her tongue out at Kara over the back of the couch. "Other times you're just a pain in my ass."

"And yet you love me anyway."

"Always." Lucy beams, turning back towards the TV, and Kara takes advantage of no-one paying her and Cat any attention, tangling a hand in blonde hair and ducking her head, pressing a gentle kiss to Cat's lips that Cat is quick to deepen, hands hot on the small of Kara's back, and she sighs happily into Cat's mouth, heart racing in her chest and god, she doesn't think she'll ever get enough of this.

She doesn't want to pull away, because Cat's kisses are electric and she never wants to stop, but she itches for _more_ , to drag her hands down Cat's sides and feel smooth skin beneath her fingertips, set ablaze by the feeling of Cat's teeth teasing at her bottom lip, and she knows that if they carry on she's going to get carried away.

So she leans back and takes a shaky breath, and Cat looks up at her with a slow, lazy smile that makes her heart pound.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," Cat murmurs then, as Kara is winding a strand of blonde hair around her index finger, quirking up an eyebrow at Cat's words. "Your sister... she called me your not-girlfriend before."

"Oh." Cat's eyes meet hers for only a second before they dart away, nervous, and Kara grins. "Is this your way of asking me to be your girlfriend, Cat? Cause it could use a little work."

"Shut up." Cat shoves at her shoulder, and Kara catches her hand, laughing. "I just... we've never talked about it."

"Because it's still so new," Kara shrugs, using her hold on Cat's hand to pull her close and wrapping her back up in her arms. "But I'm not interested in seeing anyone else, if that's what you're really asking. I thought you knew that."

"I'm not, either." Kara's smile is wide, and it's reflected back at her in Cat's eyes.

"So does this mean I get to call you my girlfriend from now on?"

"Yes." Kara's smile widens even further. "And your first duty as my girlfriend can be escorting me to an awards dinner next week." Her smile twists into a pout, because that does _not_ sound like fun. "I'll make it worth your while," Cat promises, mouth back at Kara's ear, hot as sin.

"Yeah? How's that?" Cat just hums, and it makes Kara shiver. "Gonna tease me by telling me what else you've got hiding in your bag?"

"Oh, Kara," Cat breathes, and having her pressed so close, her voice sounding like _that_ , makes her head spin. "It's not teasing if I plan on following through." She leans back, and there's a smirk on red lips that Kara aches to wipe away. "And I don't have anything else in my bag to tease you with. In my closet, on the other hand..." She trails off with a suggestive raise of her eyebrow before sauntering away, leaving Kara gaping after her for the second time that night.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've added a couple of tags to this story, which you might wanna check out before reading this chapter - some apply to this cone and some the next, but needless to say, neither are exactly what you'd class as safe for work ;)

Kara’s jaw _actually_ drops when Cat knocks on her front door the night of the awards dinner, eyes tracing across Cat’s body, encased in a perfectly-tailored pantsuit, and Cat smiles smugly at the dazed look on her face when she meets Cat’s gaze.

“You look…” She trails off and bites her lip, and then she steps closer and reaches for Cat’s hips, tugging her inside her apartment and pressing her back against the wall. “Amazing,” she breathes against Cat’s lips, and then she kisses her, hot and desperate, Cat trapped between cool plaster and the heat of Kara’s body, solid against her front.

Kara doesn’t look so bad herself – the black dress is stunning, and there’s a slit on the thigh that Cat’s fingers find, greedily running up and over the bare skin and making Kara shudder against her.

They’ve stolen hasty kisses in the few quiet moments they’ve managed to snatch alone together over the past few days, Kara occasionally popping into her office or Cat stealing into her studio after Carter had gone to bed, but they’d yet to spend another night together since Alex’s Halloween party, and Cat’s been looking forward to this night ever since.

The party had been a resounding success, and Cat had been relieved that Alex and Carter got along so well, and that she hadn’t managed to spectacularly mess up and alienate Kara’s sister or her friends.

All in all, aside from the lack of time they’ve managed to spend together, things are going swimmingly, and Cat can barely believe her luck.

“God, you’re so hot,” Kara whispers into her ear when their lips part, and Cat’s breathing is ragged, chest rising and falling rapidly as she tries to catch her breath, dizzy from the force of Kara’s kisses. “You should dress like this more often.” She runs her hands over Cat’s hips and down, squeezing her and ass and making her groan. “Remind me again,” Kara continues, tracing a lewd path from Cat’s ear and down her neck with lips and tongue, “why we can’t just skip the party and stay here tonight, instead?”

“Because I’m getting an award,” Cat reminds her, breath catching when Kara’s teeth graze her skin. “And I’m expected to be there to pick it up. Without a hickey,” she cautions when Kara bites harder, and she immediately eases up on the pressure, soothing the sting with the hot press of her tongue. “We won’t be there long. We’ll eat, I’ll make a speech, and then I’ll bring you home and make you scream my name.” Kara groans against her skin, her next open-mouthed kiss falling on Cat’s collarbone.

“What’s the award?” Kara’s tongue runs along the dip of her collarbone, and Cat’s knees nearly buckle, head falling back against the wall behind her – the door is still open, and anyone could walk past, but with Kara’s mouth on her and her body pinning in her place, Cat doesn’t care.

Kara is a goddess, and tonight is Cat’s opportunity to show her off.

“I’ve been voted the most powerful woman in National City.” She’s smug, and proud, because she’d worked _hard_ to get to where she is today and she wants the whole damn world to know it.

“ _Hot_ ,” Kara breathes against her skin, nails digging into the skin of her ass, and Cat moans as Kara’s thigh slips between her legs, and then she pauses, lifting her head from Cat’s neck and tracing a questioning finger across Cat’s thigh and then over the previously unnoticed bulge in her pants. “Is that…”

“I told you that I’d make tonight worth your while.” Cat’s smirk is wicked, and Kara licks her lips and darts forward to kiss her again, hot and hard and it leaves her _ruined_ , knees weak and shaky.

“You’re not really making a very good case for getting me to leave this apartment,” Kara says when she pulls back, pupils blown wide and eyes dark with desire, the words breathed against Cat’s lips. “Because now I just want to get National City’s most powerful woman out of those clothes and let her fuck me until I can’t walk straight.”

“ _God_.” The rough tone of Kara’s voice and the way she runs her hand over the toy between Cat’s thighs, pressing it against her clit, nearly has her eyes rolling into the back of her head. “Later,” she breathes, eyes fluttering closed, and she knows she won’t be able to think about anything else all night. “I promise you we’ll leave the first chance we get.”

“Mm, I don’t know if that’s good enough.” She cups her hand between Cat’s thighs, pressing the toy against her hard, and Cat’s knees nearly give out as her hips jerk into Kara’s touch, swallowing hard around the moan that tumbles from her throat, and this was _not_ how tonight was supposed to go.

Kara was _supposed_ to find out only after they’d left, when they were in the car, where Cat could breathe into her ear what she was going to do to her later, watch the anticipation bloom and grow on Kara’s face throughout the night.

She _wasn’t_ supposed to be considering pushing Kara down on her couch and shoving that dress up her thighs and forgetting all about her award in favour of drowning in her girlfriend and never coming up for air.

“It’ll have to be,” Cat gasps, as Kara’s palm grinds against her and god, she’s already soaked through her underwear and the night has barely even begun. “But just think about how you’ll feel, seeing me on stage giving a speech to a room full of stuffy old white men in suits, and knowing what I’m hiding beneath these pants, and exactly what I’m going to be doing with it later.” Kara’s breath hitches, and Cat thinks she might have her.

“Okay,” Kara murmurs, and she kisses Cat again, open-mouthed and messy, and it makes Cat’s toes curl in her heels. “You’re going to kill me one of these days, you know,” she says when she pulls back, taking a moment to take in the sight of Cat, splayed against her wall and gasping for breath, temporarily forgetting how to move.

“I assure you,” she replies as she runs a shaking hand through her hair and smooths down her clothes, “that the feeling is mutual.” Kara grins, and Cat ensures that the both of them are presentable and don’t just look like they’ve been making out against a vertical surface for several minutes before taking Kara’s hand and pulling her out into the hall.

Cat finds it hard to keep her hands idle in the car, when Kara’s looking at her with stormy eyes and that damn slit in her dress revealing such a large expanse of smooth skin to her hungry gaze, but she knots them in her lap because she knows if she reaches out to touch Kara then she isn’t leaving this backseat until they’re both spent.

There’s the flash of cameras when they step out of the car, and Cat’s hand clutches Kara’s tightly as she allows them to get a few shots of the two of them together – Cat wants nothing more than to show the whole damn world that (for some reason that she’s still not entirely sure she understands) Kara is with her.

When Kara shifts uncomfortably next to her, she tightens her grip on her hand and leads her through the doors, pressing a gentle kiss against her lips when she sighs in relief.

“Sorry,” she murmurs, lips still brushing Kara’s. “Couldn’t resist showing you off.”

“It’s okay.” Kara gives her one last peck before leaning away. “Your Mom isn’t going to be here tonight, is she?”

“Doubt it.” Kara nods and tugs Cat into the banquet hall beyond, where she’s promptly swept into conversation by at least a dozen of the other attendees. Kara is quiet at her side, and Cat worries that she’s boring her, but whenever their eyes meet Kara just smiles softly and runs her thumb over the back of Cat’s hand. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs once the crowd around them has thinned, and they can snatch a few moments alone, “if you’re bored.”

“Are you kidding? I could listen to you talk all day. Especially,” Kara steps closer, her eyes dark and making Cat long to sink in them, “about how awesomely successful you are.” She ducks her head so she can breathe her next words into Cat’s ear. “It gets me so hot.” Cat’s mouth goes dry and she struggles to swallow, breathing turning laboured. “And so wet.” The noise that escapes Cat’s throat can only be described as a whimper. “Your speech is probably going to kill me.”

“If _you_ don’t kill _me_ first,” Cat replies, breathless, and Kara’s chuckle is dark and so full of promises. “Jesus.”

She’s pulled into conversation with someone else before Kara can torture her any further, but the younger woman’s words echo in her head, her skin aflame whenever Kara drags her thumb across the back of her hand or presses close to her side, and she barely has any idea what she’s saying as she leads Kara around the room.

Kara’s hand is hot on her thigh when they’re led to their table, and Cat is relieved when the woman sat beside Kara recognises her and draws her into a conversation about her work, leaving Cat free to talk business with a couple of the suits around them with no fear of Kara falling asleep where she sits.

It makes Kara more relaxed, and there’s that spark in her eyes that she gets whenever she talks about what she does, the one that makes Cat wish that she herself could paint, if only so she could immortalise that brightness forevermore.

She doesn’t even complain about the food this time, though she presses her lips together when she sees the size of the first portion that they’re presented with, and Cat pats her shoulder sympathetically and whispers in her ear that they can stop somewhere on the way home again, and that cheers her up immediately.

Once the food is gone the awards show starts, and Cat waits impatiently for her name to be called, energy thrumming through her because the sooner she steps on to that stage, the sooner she can get Kara back home and stripped naked, and _that’s_ something that she’s been looking forward to all week.

It’s the last award of the night, and when her name is called a smiling Kara turns and presses a congratulatory kiss against her lips, caught by the flash of a camera and Cat knows that the image will be splashed on the front pages come morning but god, she doesn’t care, not when Kara’s eyes are so soft and so fond, not when she’s flooded with such warmth as applause rings out around her and Kara looks so _proud_.

Her speech is flawless, and she doesn’t stumble over her words even when she glances towards Kara and catches her gaze, her eyes dark and intense as they rake over Cat’s body, and it might make her go a little weak at the knees but she doesn’t for a second let it show.

And once the award is hers and she’s done the rest of the schmoozing necessary for the evening, she finds Kara immersed in a small crowd of people asking her about some of her pieces and when her next gallery show will be, and she feels a flash of pride herself, because Kara is incredible, so young and so talented and so _successful_ , and Cat is amazed by her.

“Ready to go?” Kara asks as Cat rests a hand lightly on her shoulder.

“Only if you are,” she murmurs, because she doesn’t want to stand in the way if Kara’s about to rustle up some business, but she just nods her head and rises fluidly to her feet, handing out a couple of business cards she produces from her purse before saying her goodbyes, tugging Cat so eagerly towards the doors that it makes her laugh, breathless. “In a hurry for something?” She asks as they break out into the cool night air, Cat’s driver already idling on the curb.

“Yeah,” Kara murmurs, reaching to open the door and then pressing Cat back against the side of the car, breath hot against her lips. “You.” She kisses her hard, a hand cupping her jaw, and Cat can taste wine on Kara’s tongue as it dips teasingly into her mouth. “So chop chop.” Kara grins, proud of herself for using one of Cat’s favourite catchphrases on her, and Cat merely rolls her eyes and slides into the car, Kara following quickly in her wake.

“Want to stop on the way home for food?” Cat asks, swallowing thickly as Kara, instead of settling on the seat beside her, throws a knee over Cat’s hips and sits on her lap.

“Mm, no.” She ducks her head to press an open-mouthed kiss to Cat’s pulse point. “It’d take too long.” Her breath on Cat’s skin makes her shudder. “And I need you.” She rocks her hips and Cat moans, tangling a hand in Kara’s hair and tugging her head back so that she can kiss her, nipping sharply at her bottom lip as she pulls away.

Kara’s eyes are dark and wild, as she stares down at Cat in the dim lighting, and when Cat slides her other hand up from Kara’s hip to cup at one of her breasts, squeezing lightly, Kara’s back arches into her hand and she tilts her head back, lips parting in a quiet moan, and she’s the hottest thing Cat’s ever seen.

She tugs Kara’s dress down impatiently, grateful for the low neckline as she manages to bare her breasts for Cat’s mouth, and she sucks at one of her nipples as Kara’s hips shift restlessly, nails digging sharply into the skin of Cat’s shoulders, and the sting of pain makes her hum against Kara’s skin.

“Cat,” Kara whines, breathless, as Cat inches a hand beneath the hem of her dress, biting at the side of one of her breasts, intent on leaving a mark, and she breathes out a curse when she presses her fingers against Kara’s sex through her panties, finds that she’s wet enough for her thighs to be slick with arousal.

“Jesus, Kara.” She kisses a path up Kara’s sternum and is caught in a kiss that makes her head spin, Kara’s hands clutching desperately at the back of her neck, rubbing the pads of her fingers against Kara’s clit through the thin lace.

“This is what you do to me,” Kara breathes when their lips part, gasping against Cat’s mouth as her hips rock desperately against her hand.

Cat’s self-control almost cracks as Kara moans directly into her ear, grinding hard against her, and she almost flips them and pushes Kara’s dress up and her underwear down and sinks inside of her because oh, god, she’s desperate and she’s aching and Cat wants her so badly that she can scarcely breathe.

But then the car is coming to a halt and they’d have so much more freedom on a _bed_ , so Cat is quick to yank up Kara’s dress just enough so that she’s decent – there’s no hiding what they’d been doing, not with them both breathless and with hair mussed, cheeks flushed and clothing out of place – and takes Kara’s hand and drags her into their building, yelling out a thank you to her driver as they go.

Kara is pressing her back against the elevator wall the second the doors are closed, and Cat is taken back to the first time they’d fallen into bed together and hopes that tonight will be just as incredible, moans into her mouth as Kara’s hands grip her hips, shifting to slip a thigh between her legs and rocking against her until her eyes roll, one hand palming at one of Kara’s breasts while the other rakes blunt nails over her scalp.

There’s no hesitation outside apartment doors this time, Kara quick to unlock her own, because Carter is home and Cat doesn’t want there to be any chance of him overhearing anything they do tonight.

Kara pushes her against the back of the couch once they’re inside, kicking her front door closed with a foot before she’s gripping at Cat’s hips, hands falling to the button of her pants as she kisses her. Her fingers are impatient as she pushes them down Cat’s thighs, taking Cat’s underwear with them, and Cat barely has time to kick them away before Kara is dropping to her knees in-front of her, and Cat’s mouth goes dry as she settles between Cat’s thighs, glancing up at her through eyes hazy with desire.

Cat struggles to keep her eyes on Kara when she reaches for the toy that sits between her thighs, rubbing the base of the strap-on against her clit and making her eyes flutter, and when Kara’s tongue licks a long stripe up the side of it before she takes the head into her mouth Cat’s eyes slam closed and oh, she’s never going to forget that image, knows it’s going to be burned onto the back of her eyelids for the rest of eternity and she couldn’t be _happier_.

She tangles both hands in Kara’s hair, and every time she bobs her head the base rocks against her clit, and when Kara shifts to press two fingers inside of her Cat comes with a quiet cry, reaching one hand behind her to grip the back of the couch so she doesn’t fall.

She flickers her eyes open as Kara stands, curling her tongue around her fingers to lick them clean, looking utterly _dishevelled_ , and Cat groans, pulls Kara into a messy kiss before breathing ‘bedroom’ against her lips and pushing her backwards lightly.

“Where do you want me?” Kara asks once her bedroom door is shut behind them, looking at Cat through hooded eyes as she shrugs out of her jacket and plucks at the buttons of her shirt.

“Mm, middle of the bed,” Cat decides, voice low and husky, the commanding tone making Kara shiver. “On your knees, facing the wall. Lose the dress.” She leans back against the wall as she watches Kara undo the zipper, tongue sliding along her bottom lip as smooth skin is bared for her hungry gaze. “And the underwear.”

Kara follows her instructions perfectly, settling herself on the bed with her back to Cat, and Cat makes her wait for a few heavy moments as she carefully folds her shirt and blazer and drapes them over the back of a nearby chair, laying her bra on the top of them before approaching Kara.

She whimpers when she feels the mattress dip behind her, and Cat sweeps her hair over one shoulder so that she can press her lips to the back of Kara’s neck, sliding her hands up and over Kara’s ribs until she can brush her thumbs against her nipples.

Kara moans, leaning back against her and resting her head on Cat’s shoulder, and she lavishes Kara’s neck with attention as she teases at her breasts. When she sinks her teeth into the fleshy part of Kara’s shoulder, her back arches, ragged gasp leaving her lips, and Cat tangles a hand in her hair and turns her head so that she can kiss Kara over her shoulder.

One hand trails over a toned stomach, and Kara nearly collapses against her at the first brush of Cat’s fingers against her clit. She’s so, so wet, hot and slick beneath her touch and Cat sinks two fingers into her easily, Kara rocking eagerly against her hand.

“Lean forward,” Cat breathes into Kara’s ear as she pulls her hand away, and Kara nearly falls face-first onto the mattress in her haste to obey, resting her weight on her hands as she spreads her legs to accommodate Cat between them.

She ducks her head to kiss a trail along Kara’s spine as she brings one hand down to steady the strap-on, rubbing it against Kara’s clit before guiding it inside of her, and Kara’s breath leaves her lungs in a desperate gasp at the feeling of it, hands fisting tightly in her sheets.

“Okay?” Cat asks, mouth still pressed against her skin.

“ _Yes_ ,” Kara hisses, and Cat smiles, lifts her head and settles her hands on Kara’s hips, keeping her steady as she pulls almost all the way out before sliding back in. “Yes, yes, yes,” Kara chants, and Cat’s rhythm starts off slow but quickly builds and builds, encouraged by the way Kara’s hips rock back against her with every thrust.

She looks _perfect_ like this, spread out before her, arms shaking with the effort of keeping herself upright, incoherent noises spilling out of her as she gasps for breath, the only noise in the room aside from the wet sound of the toy working between them and the creak of the bedsprings beneath their knees, and Cat thinks she could do nothing but this every moment for the rest of her life.

Every thrust of her hips rocks the base of the toy against her clit, sending a pulse of heat through her and making her breathless, a slow heat spreading through her as Kara begs her to be harder, faster. As she feels herself growing closer and closer to the edge she slides one hand around Kara’s hip and between her legs, searching fingers skating over her clit and circling until Kara’s crying out her name, shaking all around her as Cat slows her movements, her own orgasm rocking through her like a wildfire and leaving her gasping for breath. She tips Kara into two more orgasms even as she feels her muscles start to burn with the effort of it, nails digging into her hips hard enough to leave a mark in the morning, and she stops only when Kara collapses onto the bed.

Kara whimpers when Cat slides the toy out of her, tugging at the buckles of the harness and letting it fall to the side of the bed as she lies back beside her spent girlfriend, smoothing away the hair that’s fallen into her face, sticking to her skin, damp with sweat.

She’ll be aching in the morning, but it’s worth it, as Kara’s sleepy eyes open, and she reaches for Cat weakly with one hand until she’s close enough to pull into a slow, lazy kiss. “God, you’re amazing,” she murmurs dreamily when they part, and Cat laughs quietly. “ _That_ was amazing. Although I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to leave this bed ever again.”

“You’re going to have to at some point,” Cat points out, but Kara just mumbles something sleepily and hides her face in her pillow, and Cat smiles fondly down at her, brushing her fingertips lightly over her back. “And I need to get back to my son.”

She doesn’t want to leave, would love nothing more than to curl up beside Kara and wake up with her in her arms come morning, but she knows every second she stays here the more likely she is to fall asleep, and she doesn’t think either Ella or Carter would forgive her.

“I’d say you could come with me and sleep in my bed tonight, but I don’t think you’re up for walking.” She’s a little smug as she says it, and Kara groans as she stretches her arms above her head and rolls onto her back, blinking up at the ceiling with dazed eyes and giving Cat the opportunity to admire the sight of her very naked and very sexy girlfriend, tracing a fingertip lightly over the marks she’d left on her skin.

“Probably not,” Kara concedes, and Cat’s smile widens. “And you get up stupidly early.” Cat laughs, ducks her head to press a chaste kiss to Kara’s lips before reluctantly climbing off the bed, disappearing back into the hall to grab her underwear and pants before returning to Kara’s room to get dressed. “Leave it here,” Kara murmurs when she catches Cat eyeing the discarded toy, debating whether it’s a good idea to shove it in her purse. “I’ll clean it, and maybe I can use it on you next time.”

“Mm, I’d like that very much.” They trade one last, lingering kiss before Cat grabs the rest of her things and leaves. She pauses briefly in the doorway, admiring the sight of Kara one last time, illuminated in the soft moonlight pouring in through her window and looking so thoroughly fucked that it makes her mouth dry, before she turns on her heel and stalks away, because she knows if she looks at Kara for just a second too long, she’ll never be able to bring herself to leave her behind.

x-x-x

"When is this ridiculous _charade_ going to end, Kitty?" Something is thrown onto Cat's desk, skating across its surface and coming to a stop in-front of her – it's a tabloid, and she's front and centre with Kara's lips pressed against her own.

Cat sighs, sets down her red pen carefully and pushes her glasses up her nose before she raises her head to look her mother in the eye. Katherine is standing on the other side of her desk with her hands resting on the wood, leaning over the top of it so she can loom over Cat, a pinched frown on her face and her eyes angry.

Despite the two minute warning she'd gotten from the front desk of the building (Katherine has the propensity to spring visits on Cat unexpectedly, and after she'd once come back from a meeting to discover her mother sitting in her office, Cat had ordered security to alert her the second Katherine was spotted within a mile radius of the CatCo building so she could suitably prepare herself for her arrival – a preparation that usually involved preparing herself a strong drink and swallowing an extra pill), Cat hasn't quite managed to steel herself for that look of disappointment in Katherine's eyes, and bristles at her close scrutiny.

"I don't know what charade you're referencing, mother." Cat leans back in her chair and settles her wrists on the arms of it – she is a queen on her throne, and Katherine had better damn remember that.

"You know very well what I'm talking about." Katherine snatches for the tabloid and waves it towards Cat's face, as though it were possible that she'd missed it the first time. "Have you seen the things they're writing about you?"

Cat has.

There had been a few stories floating around after the first gala she and Kara had attended, speculating on the nature of their relationship and desperate to know who this mysterious younger woman on Cat Grant's arm was.

By now the reporters have done their research, they know who Kara Danvers is – and her age, which is splashed on the page Katherine is thrusting at her. Cat's already seen it, along with a few other news stories wondering how Kara had managed to charm the Queen of all Media with the heart of ice, and a few others calling Cat an all manner of things for dating a woman half her age.

She'd ground her teeth as she'd read each and every single one over coffee that morning, and forced herself to remember the ferocity of Kara's kisses, the way she'd looked at her last night with those soft eyes so full of wonder, and the way she'd fallen apart in Cat's arms, breathing her name, in order to ignore the poisonous words that tried to echo her early doubts about embarking on this relationship.

They were certainty harder to ignore in print, staring up at her in cool, black letters, but Cat is _committed_ to this now, committed to Kara and to what they're trying to have together, and no amount of name-calling from amateur journalists id going to convince her to break it off, not when Kara fills her and Carter's life with so much light and joy.

"Have you?" Katherine prompts, says the words it a demand, still waving that godforsaken newspaper in her face, and Cat snatches it away from her just so she doesn’t have to look at it anymore, tipping it neatly into the trash can beside her desk.

"It's a little hard to ignore when you're shoving it in my face, mother, yes, I have seen the headlines." She sits up more in her chair, straightens her spine with the strength that the memory of Kara, lying breathless and spent on her back in her bed and watching Cat leave with wanting eyes, gives her, and meets Katherine's gaze head on as she very deliberately says, "and I don't _care_."

"You don't _care_?!" Katherine sputters in disbelief, and Cat doesn’t expect her to understand. Katherine cared about nothing aside from her image, she never had – sometimes Cat wonders if the only reason she'd married her father was not for love, but because he was the only man with a good enough reputation for her to deem him worthy of her that she could stand to be around for more than five seconds.

"No." Cat enunciates the word clearly, pushing herself up from her chair and resting one hand on her hip, the other pressing against the surface of her desk, her favourite power stance and god, she needs that power now when Katherine is looking at her in that way she hates, like no matter what she does, she'll never be good enough.

Cat has built herself an empire with her bare hands, raised a wonderful son that Katherine can barely even bring herself to know, and she has never once gotten her approval.

She'd stopped caring about getting it a long time ago, but it still stings whenever Katherine looks down at her with contempt, still makes her feel she's a child all over again.

"And nothing you say to me," she continues, her jaw tight with the anger she can feel boiling through her at Katherine's _nerve_ to show up here in the middle of the working day, to put Cat on display in-front of the employees who had already been shooting her curious glances, whispers following her as she'd strode from her elevator and into her office earlier that morning, “is going to change my mind."

She reminds herself to take deep breaths, because otherwise she's going to scream and she has that one important rule of never getting angry at work – not the kind of angry she is now, anyway, the deep, hot-blooded kind that makes her itch to hit something.

Probably her mother.

If she didn't think Katherine would punch her back three times as hard, she just might be tempted.

"They're making a mockery of you! And you don't care? Why? Because you love her?" Katherine sneers around the word, and Cat's jaw clenches, teeth grinding and she can already feel a migraine beginning to pound behind her eyes. "What makes you think she's going to stick around? She'll have her five minutes in the limelight and then you'll push her away just like you did your last husband, and you'll look an old, lonely fool when she leaves you for someone her own age."

"Are you finished?" Cat asks through gritted teeth, because even though Kara eases away Cat's doubts whenever they're together, she doesn’t need any more negativity in her life than the thoughts that already swirl through her head.

"You'd really throw your reputation away for her? You barely know her!"

"I know a lot of things about her," Cat snaps, curling the hand resting on her desk into a fist so tight that her arm shakes with the effort of it. "I know that she's talented, successful in her own right, and she's not using me to get ahead, or to have her time in the limelight, as you so kindly put it. I know that she is selfless, and so full of integrity, and she could do a thousand times better than me but there's no chance in hell of me finding someone better than her. So, I'll say it again – there is nothing you can say to change my mind about this, or about her. All you're doing here is wasting time. Both mine and yours, though I daresay mine is a lot more valuable." Katherine _snarls_ , and Cat smiles at her sweetly. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to get the hell out of my office so that I can get some work done, that would be very much appreciated."

She sinks back down into her chair, dismissing Katherine with a wave of her hand, like she's a fly and not the only person in her life able to tear her down, and she stares resolutely down at the layouts in-front of her as though they contain all the answers in the universe, when in reality she isn't seeing a thing.

"She'll leave you," Katherine says with certainty, and Cat forces her head to stay down, doesn't want to give Katherine the satisfaction of knowing that she's listening. "And you'll regret it all the second that she does. Better to end it now, while it's still early, before you burn down this empire you're so proud of for a girl half your age. You think people will respect you now? They all think you're paying her. All those employees out there, looking in here like it's an exhibition at the zoo, you think they'll listen to you now?"

"Yes, mother, I do, do you know why?" She raises her head, and her expression is so poisonous that Katherine actually flinches. "Because I'm the one who pays their wages. My dating Kara isn't going to do a damn thing to affect this company, because I would never allow it, and don't pretend you're concerned about me, or CatCo, because we both know all you care about is yourself. I don't want to see you back in this building ever again, until you can keep your mouth shut about my relationship – but I doubt that will ever happen, and that's more than okay with me." Katherine's looking down at her in shock, and Cat can't help but feel a flutter of it herself, because she's never once stood up to her mother, not like this, but now she's started she's too scared to stop. "Now, get the _fuck_ ," Katherine gasps, appalled, and Cat feels a flash of victory, "out of my office. Now."

Katherine sputters, and Cat gives her best murderous stare until she turns with a huff and stalks away, and Cat lets out a heavy breath as the door closes behind her, slamming so hard that the glass rattles in its frame.

She feels exhausted, and shaky, and her hands tremble as she pours herself a drink, the whiskey nearly splashing over the rim of the glass. She tosses back four fingers and pours herself another three, her heart beating loud in her chest, and she wonders if she's truly heard the last of this, after all.

Her head _throbs_ , and as she looks out the walls of her office she sees almost the entire bullpen muttering and shooting furtive glances her way, the lot of them no doubt gossiping about the front pages and her confrontation with Katherine, she feels another pulse of anger, hot and furious, and stalks towards the door, throwing it open and smiling a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes when the entire room falls silent.

"Am I paying you to stand around gossiping like teenagers?" Her voice is quiet but deadly, and some of her weaker members of staff are already scrambling to return to their desks. "Get the hell back to work. I've fired four people this week already and I am not unprepared to add to that total."

They rush back to their tasks, and Cat walks back to her desk with heavy steps and an even heavier heart. Her mood is dark and no amount of painkillers or rubbing at her temples seem to ease that or her migraine, and by midday she's ready to go home, but she has no such luxury. She has four back-to-back business meetings, one of which is over dinner, and the day stretches out before her, long and horrendously busy, and its days like this that she almost regrets being so involved in the company because she wants nothing more than to call it a day but there's no-one else around that can take over her job, even for just a day.

God, less than fourteen hours ago she'd been on cloud nine, heart pounding fast with adrenaline, award in hand and feeling on top of the world with Kara's dark eyes appraising her across the room, felt like she was flying when Kara had kissed her, hot and messy, in the car on the way back to her apartment.

 She'd always known that happiness would never last, because it never did, not for her – but she hadn't expected it to crash and burn so suddenly, and certainly not so viciously.

She needs some of Kara's sunny sentimentality to get her through this day, so as she's pouring over her next issue’s final edits over lunch, she taps Kara's number into her phone and lifts it to her ear. She feels a flash of disappointment when it goes straight to voicemail, but Kara has a time-consuming job too, so she brushes it off and types a text, instead.

_I am having the worst day in the history of the universe – distract me? I miss you._

She bites her lip as she reads that last part over to herself, because it's been less than twenty four hours since they last saw one another, but she sends it anyway because she _does_. A few months ago she would have scoffed at herself, but she's in too deep with Kara to care how desperate she sounds anymore, anyway.

She keeps an eye on her phone throughout the day, but there's no reply, and it only sours her already bleak mood – especially when the little 'read' icon appears beside the message after a couple of hours. She tries not to read too much into it, but fails, rather miserably, and her day goes from bad to worse when she sees the latest finance reports and realises with a sick feeling in her stomach that she's going to have to at the very least downsize, or failing that, completely get rid of the Trib, one of her very first acquisitions when she began building up CatCo.

When, later that afternoon, James tells her that the art department needs another three days to finalise prints that are already late, she doesn’t know whether to scream or cry. She does neither, instead tightening her jaw and clutching her pen so tightly that she nearly snaps it clean in half, and tells him to get out through gritted teeth, absolutely positive that this is one of her worst days in this job since the day she started.

The three lattes she orders her assistants to fetch throughout the afternoon to get her through it all come back lukewarm, and when one of them won't stop _apologising_ and staring down at her with wide, terrified eyes, and she just barely manages to refrain herself from firing him on the spot.

It's just not worth the hassle of trying to find a new assistant that she doesn’t run out of her office within a week.

One of her editors, however, is not quite as indispensable. He's been slacking with his work for a while, and Cat uses the opportunity to tear him down and make an example out of him in-front of his entire department to make herself feel marginally better about the way her day is going.

Unfortunately for Nick, Cat has impeccable hearing for her age, and when he makes a derogatory comment about her relationship with Kara under his breath, bitter over her making a fool out of him and not dreaming for a moment that she would hear, she whirls around with fire in her eyes that makes the quiet laughter of those around him die in their throats.

"What did you just say?" Her voice is barely higher than a whisper, tight with anger, and normally the way he squirms beneath her furious gaze would fill her with glee, but today it just makes her angrier as he sputters beneath the weight of her gaze. "Do not," she continues, advancing on him with quick steps that make everyone around him scatter, "make me repeat myself."

"I said..." He trails off, eyes darting around him desperately as though he's looking for help, but everyone else in the room is staring at the floor, not wanting to see this disaster play out. "That..." He quails under her stare, the rest of the words rushing out of him almost too quick for her to catch them. "The hot dyke you're dating clearly can't be any good in bed for you to still have such a giant stick up your ass."

"Hm, that's what I thought you said." It's not like she hasn't heard similar things before – and worse. She knows she's a ruthless boss and her employees whisper about her behind her back, and she'd suffered worse comments when she'd been working at the Daily Planet, but that doesn't mean she'll stand for it.

"Miss Grant, please, I didn't - "

"Pack up your things," Cat says coolly, cutting through his bumbling apology. "You're fired. Effective immediately." She silences any further protests with a withering glare, and the room is so quiet that it's entirely possible that those who remain in her office once Nick has scrambled away are holding their breath. "Now, does anyone else have anything they'd like to get off their chest?"

Her eyes flicker across every single face, fighting a smirk at the fear she can see on some of them, as there are hasty shakes of the head and many 'no, Miss Grant's echoed back at her. She nods and continues the meeting, the editing department suitably subdued and probably terrified enough not to bother her for the rest of the day, and she dismisses them when she's done with a wave of her hand.

God, she needs another drink.

Or five.

But she has a three more meetings to go, and her dinner plans are more important now than ever, if she wants to secure herself another investor and give the Trib another few months to flourish before she starts having to make cuts.

So she fights her way through the rest of her day, and she only allows her weariness to show on her face once she’s settled safely in her car on the way one of the most pretentious restaurants in National City.

She decides to call her son, because Carter’s voice never fails to soothe her, but because she’s been checking her phone for the reply from Kara that is still yet to come, six hours later, and because today is one of the worst days in the history of her adult life, the damn thing dies the second she presses her thumb against Carter’s name, and she left her portable charger back in her damn office.

Just fucking _excellent_.

She still has a meeting to conduct, so she puts on her best sunny fake smile as her driver opens the door for her, waltzes into the restaurant with a bounce in her step in spite of the way that her head is pounding so badly that her vision is almost swimming, despite the fact that she’s probably not going to get the chance to speak to her son today before he goes to bed, and that her girlfriend appears to be ignoring her for no reason that Cat can think of, and she charms the pants off of the suit that she’s praying is going to give her a multi-year investment deal.

And he does, eventually, but _god_ can the man talk. Cat smiles and nods politely and asks all the right questions when there’s a lull in conversation, but all she wants is to go home and crawl into bed and forget this day ever happened, and when he stands up to leave she almost sobs in relief.

She closes her eyes in the car on the way home, rubs at her temples and tells herself that it’ll just be a few more minutes before she can sleep, and the thought of her ridiculously high thread count sheets are the only thing that motivates her to drag her feet out of the elevator when it opens onto her floor.

Unlocking her front door, she expects to be greeted by a quiet silence, because Carter should have been in bed an hour ago and Ella usually curls up with her latest trashy romance novel as she waits for Cat to come home – more than once, she’s found the woman curled up under a blanket, reading glasses falling off her nose and book lying on the floor.

She does not expect to be greeted by loud, excited laughter that makes her head ache, or to hear the TV playing one of those superhero movies that Carter is so fond of. When she rounds the corner, she finds Carter wedged on the couch between Kara and Alex, and the apartment’s a mess, games lying on the floor and flour smeared on the kitchen counter and all she wanted was to _sleep_ and when Kara and Carter turn as one to smile up at her something just _snaps_.

“What are you still doing up?” She doesn’t yell, because she doesn’t want to upset Carter, but her voice is tight with anger and he notices, rising quickly to his feet, guilty look on his face. “And where is Ella?”

“I didn’t tell Kara my bedtime,” Carter says, looking down at the floor as he scuffs at it with his foot. “And I told her we’d clean up the kitchen after we’d finished the movie, so don’t be mad at her, it’s not her fault.”

“And Ella had a family emergency and had to go… she said she called you, but she couldn’t get through?” Kara’s eyes are wary as she takes in the look on Cat’s face. “So she knocked on my door and asked if we could keep an eye on him ‘til you got home. She said she’d cleared that with your assistant?”

Cat vaguely remembers one of them, the one she’d wanted to fire earlier that day, trying to catch her attention as she’d been leaving, but she’d been too desperate to get away and had pretended she hadn’t seen his desperate waving.

God, she’s an idiot.

“Yes, well, she didn’t.” Kara bites at her bottom lip, and Cat looks away, glancing towards her sheepish son. “You need to get to bed. Now.” He nods and bids Kara and her sister goodnight before scampering away down the hall. “And you should go, too,” she says to the pair of them before she follows after her son, and the hurt look on Kara’s face makes her chest ache.

“I mean it, Mom,” Carter whispers as he’s settling into bed and folding his arms across his chest. “Don’t be mad at Kara, it’s not her fault.” Cat just hums, and she reads a chapter of his favourite book because she doesn’t want to go back to her living room and see the destruction that he, Alex and Kara had waged during their night of fun, and she only leaves once he’s fast asleep, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead before rising to her feet and padding down the hall.

Kara is still there, standing at the kitchen counter and wringing her hands, but her sister is not. The place is spotless, and Cat blinks in surprise, more than a little impressed that the two of them have managed to clean up in such a short space of time but unwilling to let it show on her face.

“I’m sorry, I - ”

“I thought I told you to go?” Cat looks longingly in the direction of her bedroom, ignoring the wounded look on Kara’s face at her harsh words.

“I… I wanted to see you before I left.” Kara’s got that little crease between her eyebrows that happens whenever she frowns, and Cat hates that she finds the sight of it adorable. “Did I… have I done something wrong? I _really_ didn’t know what time Carter was supposed to be in bed, I - ”

“You didn’t think that ten pm was a little late for a thirteen year old to be up on a school night?” Cat asks with a raised eyebrow and her hands settled on her hips.

“I… I didn’t notice the time,” she admits, quietly. “Are you... are you upset that I’m here? I wouldn’t have agreed if Ella hadn’t said it was okay with you, I’ve already told you I don’t want to overstep - ”

“And yet here you are.” Kara flinches like she’s been slapped, and Cat hates herself for it and god, why can’t she just shut _up_ and kiss Kara until she forgot all about her terrible, terrible day? “I can’t reach you for the entire day – and you can’t even deign to let me know that you’re okay – and yet I come home and find you with my son, along with your sister, who I’ve met only twice, without my knowledge.”

“You’re upset.” Cat nearly laughs, because that’s the greatest understatement in the history of the entire world. 

 “Thank you, for looking after Carter, but I’ve had the _worst_ day and I just want to sleep and forget it ever happened - ”

“I’m sorry, for not replying before.” She says it softly, like she’s figured out that there’s more Cat isn’t saying. “I… I was painting, and I read it during a break and I got a phonecall before I had a chance to reply and then I had an idea that I had to write down and I… I get distracted easily. You’ve probably noticed that. So I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you today. I’m sorry you had an awful day. I’m sorry for bringing my sister into your apartment without telling you. But,” Kara continues, her voice wavering slightly. “Just because you had a shitty day doesn’t mean you get to take it out on me.”

Her voice wobbles a little on the final word, and Cat appraises her in the quiet of her living room, Kara twisting her fingers nervously behind her back, and Cat with her hands on her hips and her eyes dark and exhausted.

“No,” she admits quietly, “I suppose it doesn’t.” Kara’s eyes dart up from the floor to meet her gaze. “But I’d still like you to go. I’m not… I’m not angry at you, but I need a little space. Before I say something I regret.”

She does that – she gets mad and she’ll take it out on whoever’s closest, and right now that’s Kara, and she doesn’t want to hurt her, not more than she already has.

Kara looks like she’s going to argue, but she scrutinises Cat’s face for one long moment before heaving out a heavy sigh and nodding to herself, turning on her heel and walking out the front door, snatching up her jacket on the way.

Cat watches her go and feels her eyes sting with tears when the door clicks behind her on the way out, and she wonders if she should have begged Kara to stay.

She wonders if revealing this part of herself to Kara will do irreparable damage, because she’d told Kara that she wasn’t an easy person to be with, but she doesn’t think that Kara had believed her, not truly.

She supposes this would happen eventually, though – she just hopes they’re strong enough to weather the storm, now that that perfect, happy bubble they’d been living in where nothing had gone wrong has popped, along with any others that follow.


	14. Chapter 14

Kara almost trips over a box lying outside her apartment door when she leaves the next morning. Bleary-eyed and half-awake, already late for a meeting, she stumbles as her boot catches on the box, and frowns, bending down to pick it up and smiling softly when she recognises it, the favourite brand of chocolates she’d told Cat about last week.

_I’m sorry_ , is what the note attached to it reads, Cat’s writing as elegant as the rest of her, and the paper smells like her perfume and Kara is careful as she drops the box and the note on the table by her front door for her to come back to later.

She’d gone to sleep with a heavy heart last night – a complete contrast to the night before, where she’d been boneless and aching, heart still racing from the memory of Cat’s touch against her skin – seeing Cat’s tired eyes whenever she blinked.

She wonders if Cat had lain awake and thought about her, like she’d done, wishing she could go and knock on Cat’s door and they could just… _forget_. Forget about sharp words and even sharper glances, and Kara _gets_ it, she does, considering Cat had apparently had a day from hell and expected to come home to a quiet house complete with her nanny waiting for her and her son in bed, and not a wide awake Carter along with Kara and Alex, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt when Cat had pushed her away.

The note eases some of that hurt, though, and Kara’s step is lighter as she races towards her gallery, making it just in time to meet her client. She’s too busy to call Cat and thank her for the apology, but when there’s a knock on her studio door after her third and final meeting of the day, a delivery guy with a bouquet of gorgeous flowers in his hands that, when she looks it up, mean ‘forgive me’, she fires off a quick text because god knows what else Cat will try and send to her before the end of the day if she doesn’t hear from her.

_You’re already forgiven_ , she sends before she settles behind her easel in the studio she’d fashioned out of one of the back rooms at the gallery, a workspace for her client-related work as opposed to her home one, which is mostly for her own enjoyment.

There’s a light knock on the door sometime later, and Kara frowns, because she could have sworn that she’d flipped the sign out front to ‘closed’ before she came back here. She pauses, listening, and when the knock comes again she sighs, wiping her hands off on a towel and wandering back into the main gallery, freezing when she recognises the woman hovering in-front of the door.

She wonders, for one long moment, whether she can take the coward’s way out and edge back to safety, but as she’s considering it, Katherine Grant looks up, piercing stare meeting Kara’s through the glass windows and she groans, forcing her legs to move her towards the door and pulling it open reluctantly.

“We’re closed,” is all she says, opening the door only a crack and leaning one shoulder against the frame.

“And yet you’re still here.” Katherine’s wearing a fake smile that glitters with just enough malice to set Kara on edge. “I was hoping we could chat.” She doesn’t move to press forward, to push Kara like Kara can tell she wants to, and she knows she could slam this door in her face and be done with it – though she’s not entirely sure how well Katherine would take that.

Cat’s torrid mood yesterday is starting to make a lot more sense, with Katherine’s cool, calculated gaze on her, and she wonders if she’d had a visit from her mother at work.

“I fail to see what you and I could possibly need to talk about.” She doesn’t move an inch, because she can tell Katherine being out on the street is making her uncomfortable. “What, you went to see Cat yesterday and didn’t like what she had to say so you’re trying to scare me, instead?” Katherine’s cheek twitches, just enough to let Kara know that she’s not wrong. “Well, it’s not gonna work, so why don’t I save you the trouble of opening your mouth. We’re closed, go away.”

She moves to shut the door and click the lock, but Katherine sticks her foot in the gap before she can manage it, and Kara sighs.

“Five minutes of your time. And then I’ll leave and you’ll never have to see me again.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“My daughter told me to never visit her at work again, and I’m assuming that extends to her home, as well, so you have very little to worry about.” Kara worries at her bottom lip before heaving out another sigh, nudging the door open just enough to let Katherine through the gap.

She looks around the interior of the gallery curiously, and Kara stands in the centre of the open space with her arms folded tightly across her chest, watching Katherine closely as she approaches one of Kara’s favourite paintings, tensing when she reaches out a hand as though she’s going to run her fingers over the canvas, but instead they only brush the frame.

“You’re very talented,” she murmurs, before she turns and stalks towards Kara slowly. “And you’re very young.” Kara senses that these are things she’s not supposed to respond to, just sets her jaw and tilts her head, meeting Katherine’s gaze head on and refusing to look away, even as those eyes seem to be boring into her very soul. “Pretty, too.”

“Is there a point to this, or…?” Katherine’s lips curl in distaste at her defiance, eyes flashing dangerously, and Kara looks pointedly at the watch on her wrist. “Cause you only have three and a half minutes left.”

“Cat is over half your age. She runs a media empire that she cares for like a child – chose it _over_ a child, once – and she has a teenage son with some… difficulties.” Kara bristles at the way she says it, loathing the thought of this woman anywhere _near_ Carter, so sweet and wonderful and innocent. “And I can’t for the life of me see what you stand to gain from this little relationship of yours.”

“I don’t have to justify myself to anyone. Especially not to _you_.” She injects it with as much venom as she can manage, but Katherine barely flinches. “Cat’s told me a lot about you, and I don’t expect you to understand what I see in her, because you’ve never once taken the time to see her at all. You don’t know the first thing about her, unless it’s something you see as negative.”

“How _dare_ you - ”

“How dare _I_?” She’s angry, now, takes a step forward on shaky legs, hands curled into fists at her sides. “You come here, into my gallery to try and get me to stay away from your daughter because you care more about _your_ image than you do about her happiness. And tell me, Katherine – would you be so determined to tear us apart if I were a man? Is it _just_ my age that bothers you, or is it my gender, too? Because I bet there’s been a younger man or two in your life before,” Katherine’s lips curl into a snarl, and for a moment Kara wonders if she’s pushed her too far, “and I’m sure there has been in Cat’s life, too. And I can’t help but wonder if you would have dared do this to them, _especially_ if they’d already enjoyed this much success in their lives. So don’t you dare come here and pretend you’re looking out for Cat, because we both know you’re only worried about yourself, and all you’re doing is pushing Cat further and further away. If you _really_ cared about her, you wouldn’t be doing this. You’d be trying to be supportive, instead. At the very least you’d be trying to get to know me before you decided that I must only be dating Cat to get something from her.”

“And is your mother supportive of this? Is your mother happy that you’re dating someone presumably her age? Because I find that incredibly hard to believe.”

“My mother died twelve years ago,” Kara says, voice cold, and this time Katherine _does_ flinch. “But I like to think that she loved me enough to support me no matter what, even if she didn’t necessarily understand it. I like to think that she’d be glad that I’ve found someone that makes me happy. Just like my foster Mom is.”

Okay, maybe that last part is a little tiny white lie, because Eliza hadn’t been thrilled when she’d discovered her daughter was dating one of the most prolific journalists in the country when she’d caught sight of the front pages yesterday.

And that hadn’t exactly been how Kara was _planning_ on telling her, but she’s pretty sure that, once she gets Cat and Eliza in a room together, Cat will be able to win her over with that wonderful charm of hers, and Eliza will be on-board.

She’s hoping she’s mostly pissed because Kara didn’t tell her, not because of _who_ she’s dating, anyway.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do here,” Kara continues, as she can see the desperation in Katherine’s eyes at knowing that she’s fighting a losing battle. “But whatever it is, it isn’t working, and we’re done. You’ve had your five minutes and more, so just… get out and leave me the hell alone.”

“It won’t last.”

“You know, I’m really glad you said that, because nothing would make me happier than proving you wrong.”

“It looks like she’s already overcompensating for something.” Katherine’s not budging, is nodding towards where the gorgeous bouquet of purple hyacinths stand proud. “Please forgive me, that’s what they mean. Did she blow off a date for work? Snap at you? Something else? You’ll get tired of it soon enough. Her last husband did. And then you’ll leave and it’ll ruin her, and contrary to what you might believe, I have very little desire to see that happen.” She holds Kara’s gaze for one long moment, and Kara doesn’t dare blink. “I’ll see myself out.”

Kara only feels like she can breathe again once the door has shut and Katherine has disappeared down the street, gasping for breath as she hurries to the door and slides the lock shut, heart racing quickly in her chest as she walks back to her studio on shaky legs.

She’d looked the devil dead in the eye and lived to tell the tale.

Katherine’s words ring in her ears and Kara _hates_ her for it, hates her for voicing the same doubts Cat had had about them aloud, because she suspects that Katherine’s belittling attitude might have something to do with why Cat felt that way in the first place, and how _dare_ she approach her like this, and the _nerve_ of that damn woman makes her blood boil.

With her temper running high and her hands itching for something to do, she spends the afternoon painting, ignoring her actual projects for the time being because she knows she’s too wound up to work on them.

Instead she gets out her anger and her frustration on a fresh canvas, and by the time she’s done, hours later, she’s breathing heavily and there’s sweat beading at her brow and she feels exhausted, but her head is clearer than it has been since Cat had dismissed her last night and she itches to see her, to wrap Cat in her arms and murmur in her ear that she was never going to let her go.

She checks the time and decides to swing by CatCo on the way home because she’s pretty sure Cat will still be working. She chooses to walk, letting the cool night air clear her head even more, and she stops at Noonan’s on the way to pick up two coffees, a latte for Cat and a cappuccino for herself to keep her awake for the rest of the evening.

The lights in the lobby of the CatCo building are dimmed, but the security desk is still manned, and Kara nods her head towards them as she presses the button for the fortieth floor. The bullpen is mostly empty, though several people are still milling about, frowning down at documents or typing hastily away at their computers.

Cat is sitting on one of the sofas within her office, heels kicked off and legs curled up beneath her, glasses sitting on her nose as she frowns down at the tablet in her lap, a glass of scotch sitting on the glass table in-front of her.

Kara pauses just outside her office, the glass door propped open, allowing herself a moment to take in the sight of her girlfriend, and her hands itch for the pencils and papers she’d stashed in her bag before she’d left the gallery, to sketch out the image of her like this, in her natural environment and working away.

When she knocks lightly on the open door Cat jumps, glancing up with a scowl, annoyed at being disturbed, before it morphs into a soft smile as she sees who’s standing there.

“Kara.”

“Hey. Brought you a latte.” She strides into the room and sets it onto the coffee table beside the scotch and rocks back on her heels, uncertain on whether Cat wants her to stay. “Thought you could probably use it, if you’re gonna be here late again.”

“Thank you.” Cat sets down her tablet and stretches her arms above her head, and Kara tries not to stare too hard because Cat looks gorgeous today in a knee-length tight white dress that shows off all her curves. “Kara,” she says more seriously, shifting so that she can rise to her feet – Kara knows that there are scant few inches between them, height wise, but without her heels on Cat looks tiny, and it makes her smile. “I want to apologise for - ”

“I told you,” Kara cuts her off, “you’re already forgiven. Thank you for the chocolate. And the flowers. You really didn’t have to.”

“I did.” Cat’s eyes regard her seriously as she wrings her hands. “I treated you awfully last night, when you were only trying to help.”

“You had your reasons,” Kara shrugs. “You weren’t expecting to see me there, or Alex. You trusted your kid with someone else, and they disappeared on you. And then Carter was still up and… I’m not a parent,” Kara murmurs, voice quiet. “Carter’s the first kid I’ve ever been around, really, and… sometimes I’m going to mess up. I know that. And you need to tell me when I do.”

“You didn’t know any better.” Cat glances outside her office walls, frowns when she sees curious eyes on them and then turns and pads over to her balcony, still without her heels, and beckons Kara to follow her. “And I trust you with Carter, you know that, right?”

“You trust me with him for like two hours a week and that one time you had me stay with him ‘til you came home, that’s different.”

“But I _do_ trust you,” Cat implores, hands reaching for Kara’s and squeezing gently. “You’re so good with him, and he adores you. And I overreacted last night and I’m so sorry. I get snappish when I’m tired, _especially_ at home because I don’t let it out at work and… you need to be aware of that. I told you, I’m not an easy person to be with.”

“Neither am I, sometimes,” Kara tells her, and Cat just scoffs. “I’m not! I’m young and I haven’t had many relationships and I don’t have as much life experience as you. Sometimes you’re probably going to wonder what the hell you’re doing with someone as naïve as me. Someone who can lock herself away in a room for three days straight and barely come up from her work for air. Someone who can forget to look at her phone all day and is terrible at replying to important messages.” She slips her hands free from Cat’s grip and settles them on her hips, instead, running her thumbs along the sharp outline of her hipbones. “And you’re allowed to get snappy, sometimes. We’re gonna fight, every couple does, and that’s okay. You don’t have to drown me in flowers every time you think you’ve upset me.”

“Too much?”

“It was sweet.” Cat makes a face and Kara grins, tugging Cat closer as she drapes her arms over Kara’s shoulders.

“I’m not very good at this,” Cat murmurs, so close that Kara feels her breath on her lips, can practically taste the scotch that she knows will be heavy on Cat’s tongue. “The relationship thing,” she elaborates when Kara eyes her questioningly. “I don’t want to mess it up.”

“One teeny tiny argument isn’t going to do that,” Kara promises her, sealing it with a kiss. Cat sighs into her mouth, and Kara’s heart thuds in her chest, because god, she could do nothing but this for the rest of her life, have the heat of Cat’s body against her front and feel Cat’s lips moving with purpose against hers, tongue dipping into her mouth and teasing at her own. “I missed you today.”

“I missed you, too.” Cat rests her head on Kara’s chest, and Kara wraps her arms tightly around her waist and sets her chin on the top of Cat’s head. “And yesterday.”

“Want to talk about why you had a shitty day?” Kara hedges, and she feels Cat stiffen slightly against her. “It’s okay if you don’t, but you should probably know that I had an interesting visitor at my gallery this morning.”

“My mother came to see you?” Cat leans back, looking appalled. “I can’t believe she did that, Kara, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she shrugs, because she thinks it might be. “I sent her packing.”

“What did she say to you?”

“Oh, the usual. ‘Stay away from my daughter’ mixed in with some choice words about the both of us. She wanted to know what I wanted from you. I told her that she’d never understand, because she’s never taken the time to see how amazing you are.” Kara swears that for a second, Cat’s eyes glitter with unshed tears before they’re carefully blinked away.

“No-one’s ever stood up to her before, not for me,” she admits in a quiet whisper, her voice more affected than she probably wanted Kara to hear.

“Well, I did. And I will, every single time,” she promises. “Even if she scares the crap out of me.” Cat manages a weak, but genuine, laugh. “Because there’s no way I’m letting someone as hateful as her belittle or doubt the way I feel about you. She’s not going to scare me away, because I’m here for as long as you want me.”

“Even if it’s always?” That vulnerability is back in Cat’s eyes as she glances up at her, and then quickly away – Kara catches her jaw between two fingers, holds her there so she can look directly into those green, green eyes as she says;

“Especially if it’s always.” Cat’s smile is soft and spreads slowly until her whole face is alight with it, and then she kisses Kara until they’re both breathless. “And speaking of mothers…” Kara continues when they part, as they’re both trying to catch their breath. “Um, my foster Mom found out about us yesterday.”

“You told her?”

“Uh, not exactly. She doesn’t keep up with the big city headlines? But some of her friends do, and they love to gossip. So when they saw me on the front page kissing Cat Grant… they called her to tell her all about it. And then she called me.”

“Oh, Kara, I’m sorry. I didn’t think… I never wanted to expose you like that.”

“I was the one that kissed you, remember?” Kara tells her, hoping to ease some of the worry that swirls in Cat’s eyes. “And it’s not like I wasn’t out to her about being into women, she’s known that since I was a teenager. I knew what I was signing up for when we met, you know. I knew dating you would probably come with my name splashed about in the gossip columns. And I don’t give a crap what people think about us being together, except… she’s my foster Mom, and she’s kind of pissed that she had to find out from her friend rather than me.”

“And I doubt she approves.”

“Well… not exactly.” Cat sighs, and Kara tightens her hold around her waist. “But it’s okay.”

“It’s not if your foster mother hates me, Kara.”

“She doesn’t _hate_ you, she’s never met you. But… well, she wants to. She was always coming to National City for Thanksgiving, and I wasn’t going to tell you in-case you thought it might be too soon for you to meet her - ”

“Despite you meeting my monster of a mother before we were even properly together?” Cat asks, with a raised eyebrow, and Kara bows her head because maybe she has a point.

“But now she wants to see you when she’s in town.” Cat tenses slightly in her arms, and Kara holds her even tighter. “She’ll love you, I know it.”

“How old is she, out of curiosity?” Kara shifts uneasily, and Cat lets out a delicate little sigh. “She’s younger than me, isn’t she.” It’s not a question, and Kara bites at her bottom lip.

“Only by like a year - ”

“Oh, because that makes so much of a difference? _God_ , she definitely hates me, she must. If Carter, when he’s older, ever dated anyone my age…”

“But I don’t _care_ about that,” Kara insists, because she never has. “And Eliza won’t, either, once she sees how happy I am, and how amazing you are. I swear, Cat, she’ll love you. And you’ve already won over Alex and my friends…”

“Your foster mother is a different matter entirely,” Cat tells her, and Kara can’t admit that she thinks so, too. “But she’s important to you, and her approval will be important to the both of us so… we’ll set something up for when she’s in town. I was going to ask if you and Alex would like to spend Thanksgiving with us, anyway.”

“You were?” Kara asks, touched, and Cat rolls her eyes and tries to brush it off with a joke.

“Well, I know you’re a terrible cook and I felt sorry for your sister, having to cook all that food on her own.”

“Eliza was going to help her,” Kara points out, and then her eyes brighten with an idea. “Oh! You could cook it together. That way you can bond.”

“Or that way she can stab me with a sharp knife when no-one’s looking,” Cat mutters darkly.

“She wouldn’t do that. She’s a doctor, she took an oath not to harm others,” Kara says seriously, face cracking into a smile when Cat stares up at her. “It’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll be there, and Alex, too, and Carter. Oh, she’ll adore Carter. And you can cook an amazing dinner and she’ll fall in love with you and everything will work out.”

“You just might be the most optimistic person I know.”         

“Is that a bad thing?”

“I suppose not.” Kara leans down for another kiss, but Cat keeps it brief, pulling away after only a few seconds, despite Kara’s pout. “I still have some work to do before I can get out of here, I’m afraid.”

“Anything I could help you with?”

“It’s sweet of you to offer, but no, I don’t think so.”

“How long will you be?”

“Another couple of hours.” She sighs, and there are weary lines on her face and Kara notices the bags under her eyes and wonders how much sleep she managed to get last night.

“And when are you planning on eating?”

“I’ll… have one of my assistants pick something up.” The dismissive way she says it makes Kara wonder how many times Cat, alone in the office long after everyone else has gone home, has been so absorbed in her work she’d forgotten to stop for food.

“Okay, how about instead I stay and keep you company, and _I’ll_ go and pick us something up.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I _want_ to,” Kara insists, because they’ve barely spent any time together in the past two weeks aside from the awards dinner, and the thought of relaxing on one of Cat’s couches, chatting idly and watching her work, sounds like heaven right about now. “And I have art supplies in my bag,” she pats it gently so Cat can hear the rattle of the pencils within. “So you don’t have to worry about me getting bored.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very,” she promises, and Cat leans up on her tiptoes to press one last kiss against her lips before retreating back into her office. Kara follows after a moment, curling up on the couch opposite Cat and balancing her sketchpad on her knees, gazing at Cat with a critical eye before she sets her pencil to paper and begins to draw her like she’d wanted to the moment she’d first laid eyes on her tonight.

“You’re not allowed to distract me, though,” Cat murmurs after a few moments of quiet silence punctuated only by the tap of Cat’s fingers on her tablet, and Kara’s pencil scratching against paper. "Otherwise I really will be here all night."

"I'm not doing anything," Kara defends, and when she next glances up to check she's getting the lines of Cat's body, there are green, green eyes staring straight at her, heavy and warm.

"Yes you are," Cat murmurs, voice like honey and Kara knows she could drown in it if she let herself. "You keep looking at me, with that intent look in your eyes..." She trails off, tongue darting past her lips, and Kara's mouth goes dry. "It makes it hard to think. To _breathe_." Kara knows the feeling, because she's struggling to remember how to draw breath with Cat's eyes on her, looking like she wants to devour her.

"But how am I supposed to draw you if I can't look at you?"

"Draw something else."

"But why would I want to, when you're the most beautiful thing around?"

"Does that line usually work for you?" Cat asks, voice dry as she returns her gaze back to her tablet, but there's a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"I don't know, you tell me."

"It might do, later, when we're alone." Kara grins, and leaves Cat to get back to her work, sketching away quietly and only looking up when she absolutely needs to. Whenever she does, she pauses for several long moments, because Cat is a vision, illuminated in the soft glow of the light in her office, casting shadows across the delicate planes of her face, across her throat and collarbones . Her eyes linger on Cat's legs, left bare by her dress, and the way she's sat has the hem rising distractingly high on her thigh, and Kara wants nothing more than to press her mouth to the skin there and feel Cat quivering beneath her lips.

"You're doing it again," Cat murmurs, when Kara gets _particularly_ distracted imagining all the wonderful ways they could utilise Cat's desk so that she'd never quite be able to look at it the same way ever again. "Staring." Cat doesn’t even have to raise her head to say it, and Kara didn’t think she was being quite so obvious, but Cat makes her forget herself sometimes, because when she looks at her it's hard to believe that she's _real_.

"Sorry," Kara says, though she's not. "Are you hungry yet?" Kara is, but then, she _usually_ is, and her stomach gives a rumble at the thought of food that makes Cat laugh.

"I could eat, and apparently so can you, though that's hardly a surprise." Kara smiles, sets her sketchbook down carefully on the couch beside her, pages open so she doesn't smudge the charcoal before it's finished. "What do you want?"

"You know I'm not fussy."

"True." Cat purses her lips thoughtfully, setting her tablet aside for the moment. "I usually just get something from Noonan's, or there's a sushi place down the street that does deliveries."

"I'm not feeling the sushi." She'll eat it if it's in-front of her, but it's not her favourite.

"Noonan's it is, then."

"What do you want?" Kara grins when Cat tells her her usual late-night order of a salad with a burger on top, lifts her bag onto her shoulder and wanders over the street to pick it up, grabbing another coffee while she waits in line.

She gets Cat another latte, too, but only just before she leaves, because if there's one thing she's learned about Cat Grant, it's that one of her least favourite things in the world is a lukewarm coffee.

Cat smiles at her gratefully when Kara sets the food down on the table in-front of her, setting aside her work as she pulls the plastic container onto her lap. As they eat she asks her about what she's been up to the past few days, and in return, Cat tells her all about her terrible week so far.

"The Tribune was one of the first things I set up in this city," she murmurs, voice quiet as she sips at her latte, burger and accompanying salad long gone. "I started with the talk show but... I was a journalist, that was always the dream, always what I wanted, and I had to fight _hard_ to get it going, to try and make it National's City answer to the Daily Planet."

"And you did."

"And now it's struggling to make a profit thanks to the rise of the digital age," Cat sighs, draining the last of her coffee and setting the empty cup back on the table. "And we have a website but it's not the same."

"I'm sorry," Kara murmurs, because Cat looks so _dejected_ and it makes her chest ache. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

"I wish there was something _I_ could do to help." Cat sighs again. "I bought us a few more months thanks to my meeting last night but... I need something that's going to sell hard copies, instead of getting hits on a website if I want to keep my printing team in a job. Frankly I need a miracle. You know what would be good? One of those superheros Carter's so fond of, flying around the skies. That'd be front page news."

The words spark something to life in Kara's head, just the faintest beginnings of an idea, and she must have a thoughtful look on her face because Cat eyes turn curious.

"What are you thinking?"

"I... just, the superhero thing. Do you have a comic strip in the Trib? Cause they're popular these days, and I just so happen to know an artist who produced a comic book as her final year project and who wouldn't be opposed to spending more time in this building..."

"Really?"

"Well, I don't know if it'd work? And sell you more copies, but," Kara shrugs. "It might be worth a shot. And it could be fun. Just... think about it," she suggests, because Cat looks ready to shoot her down straight away. "I'll sketch out some designs, see what your creative team thinks about them, and if everyone thinks it's a horrible idea, then no harm done."

"Okay," Cat agrees, and Kara grins. "We'll see what happens. Considering we're trying to save money, though, I'm not sure we can afford to keep you on retainer."

"I usually get paid by the hour," Kara shrugs, "and it won't take me long. Especially if I persuade the interns starting at my gallery next week to help me. Maybe Carter can get involved, too, I'm sure he'd love that. He's asked me about designing comic strips before."

"Okay," Cat says again, and she leans closer to brush a gentle kiss against Kara's lips. "Thank you."

"I haven't done anything yet."

"No, but you will. And that's more than some people would. You're much too good for me." Kara kisses her again, slow and deep until Cat is practically melting into her arms. "Mm, I should get back to work," she murmurs when they part, eyes a little dazed and her breathing heavy. "Because the sooner I finish the sooner we can get of here..." She trails her index finger down the side of Kara's neck, sweeps it across her collarbone before sliding it down her sternum, Kara's breath catching and the skin along the path of Cat's teasing finger tingling as she pulls away.

"Can I, um," Kara struggles to remember how to form words, because Cat Grant is hot as hell and Kara's surrounded by the heady scent of her perfume, a finger toying idly with one of the buttons of Kara's shirt. "Go sketch the view from your balcony? That way you can't complain that I'm distracting you." Cat laughs, deep and rich and igniting a fire low in Kara's stomach.

"Of course you can, darling. I'll try not to be too long." Kara gathers up her bag and moves towards the balcony door, pausing just once to take in the sight of Cat behind her, head bowed and tiny frown of concentration sitting between her brows.

She shakes her head and shuts the balcony door behind her, because the air is cold and Cat doesn’t have a jacket, and drags one of the chairs towards the edge, resting her sketchbook on the railing as she draws a hasty outline of the city skyline, stretching out before her.

It's beautiful, and Kara could never have an office like this one, because she'd just spend her days out here on this balcony, admiring the view. She's on one of the tallest floors around, and below her, National City is made up a thousand glittering lights.

Cars crawl along the roads and she catches the shadows of people on the sidewalk, though she's too high to make out any of their features. High above her, the sliver of the moon is just barely visible behind a cloud, the stars twinkling brightly in the dark sky, and Kara pauses in her drawing to tilt her head back and admire the sight of them, and this high up it feels like they should be close enough to touch, but they're still so far away.

She hears the balcony door slide open behind her, but doesn't movie until a shadow falls over her, Cat managing to squeeze herself between the railing and Kara's chair, settling her hands on the arms and leaning close.

"Finished?" Kara asks, tearing her gaze away from the stars to the just as breath-taking sight of Cat looming over her as she sets her sketchbook aside. Cat's answer is a searing kiss that makes her moan, her hands rough in Kara’s hair and her tongue hot in her mouth, and when she pulls away Kara is breathless and dizzy, a slow spark of desire spreading through her veins the longer Cat looks at her with those eyes that seem like they can see straight through to her soul.

"You know," Cat murmurs the words into her ear, voice low and husky and about ten thousand times hotter than it usually is, and Kara shifts in her seat, growing wetter by the second, "I've always wanted to fuck someone on this balcony." Kara whimpers as Cat takes her earlobe between her teeth and tugs lightly, breath hot against Kara's skin. "To have the stars above us and the city spread out below." Cat's hands settle deliberately on Kara's knees before she slides them up along the inside of her thighs with a very clear purpose, and Kara groans as Cat's nails dig in hard enough for her to feel it even beneath the denim of her jeans, head dropping against the back of the chair. "Do you want that, too, Kara? Want me on my knees with my head between your thighs, making you come so hard that the people on the street below will be able to hear you call my name?"

She whimpers again when Cat's lips press against her neck, tongue hot as it swirls against her skin. "Oh, god please, yes." Cat's chuckle is dark against her skin, and Kara reaches out to pull Cat into her lap, a knee settling on either side of her hips as she curls a hand around the side of Cat's jaw and brings her up for another kiss.

This one is messy and more than a little desperate, and Kara's eyes roll when Cat undoes the buttons of her shirt with deft fingers before she catches a nipple between thumb and index finger and tugs until she sees stars.

Her own hands creep up Cat's thighs, teasing at the skin just beneath the hem of her dress, but Cat is quick to catch her wrists and pull them away. "Not yet," she murmurs, breath hot on Kara's lips. "I want this to be about you. I want to sit at my desk and glance out here during a boring meeting and remember the sight of you spread out beneath me." Kara's breathing grows even heavier, and Cat's pupils are blown so wide that there's barely any green left in her eyes. "I want to be able to hear the sound of you moaning my name, remember the way you feel against my mouth, your hands in my hair, to make it all more bearable."

" _Fuck_." Cat's voice alone could probably be enough to get her off, if she's being honest – it wraps around her like a caress and sets her slowly burning from the inside out. She's already soaked through her underwear, already desperate and aching for Cat's touch, and the smile that's on Cat's mouth as she leans back and shifts to her knees in-front of her is wicked, makes her swallow thickly even though her mouth is bone dry.

Cat urges her thighs apart and Kara is only too happy to oblige her, and Cat settles between them, Kara running a hand through blonde hair as Cat tugs her bra down before she ducks her head to take one of Kara's nipples between her teeth, dragging her tongue in a slow circle that has her crying out and arching into Cat's mouth. 

Cat's definitely going to kill her, one of these days, because her hands and her tongue are even more sinful than her voice but oh, there's no better way for her to go.

Sure fingers drop to the button of her jeans, popping it open as she releases Kara's nipple, and she shivers at the sensation of the cool night air on wet skin. She lifts her hips when Cat's fingers hook through the belt loops of her jeans and tug, peeling black denim and black lace down long legs and leaving them around Kara's ankles as she wraps her hands around the back of Kara's knees and tugs until she's sitting right on the edge of the chair.

She should probably feel more exposed than she does, half-naked and aching for Cat's mouth, because she's pretty sure the building isn't yet empty but god, she doesn’t even care, not when Cat is looking up at her with wide, lustful eyes, not when she's resting hot palms on the inside of her thighs to press them even further apart, not when she's dipping her head and running her tongue along slick flesh.

And god, Cat is much too good at this, and she tightens her fingers in Cat's hair as that razor-sharp and oh so talented tongue swirls around her clit, hips grinding against Cat's face as she curls her other hand around the arm of the chair, nails biting into the wood.

She wishes she hadn't worn boots today, because with her jeans at her feet she can't move, can't throw one leg over Cat's shoulder and use it keep her close. Cat seems intent on using Kara's position to her advantage, hands keeping her hips steady as she teases her, alternating between long, slow strokes of her tongue and fast licks against her clit, content to draw it out for as long as possible, until Kara is breathless and desperate and absolutely ruined, wet enough to have soaked both Cat's chin and the seat of the chair beneath her.

"Cat," she whines the next time Cat swirls her tongue, easing her hold on Kara's hips _just_ enough to let her rock against her, chasing her mouth as she shifts to tease at her entrance. "Cat, please, I-I need - " She cuts off with a ragged gasp as Cat presses two fingers inside of her and sucks her clit into her mouth at the same time, and Kara's vision flashes white as she comes and comes and comes, and Cat doesn't ease up until Kara swats her weakly away, her knees shaky and her breathing ragged, and there's a pleased, smug smile on Cat's lips when Kara finally manages to recover enough to blink her eyes open.

She draws Cat back into her lap, kisses her and tastes herself on Cat's tongue, and pouts when Cat leans away from her mouth as she goes to trail her lips down her throat.

"As much as I'd like that," she murmurs, a hand playing idly with Kara's hair. "I didn’t get to see Carter yesterday, and I don't want to be back too late tonight."

"Okay," Kara murmurs, kissing Cat once more before she shifts off her lap, and Kara stands on slightly shaky legs and pulls her underwear and her jeans back into place, wincing a little as she sees the dark patch she'd left behind on the chair. "Sorry."

"Mm, don't be." Cat's fingers curl around her hips, tug her close enough to kiss. "I like knowing what I do to you. How wet you get for me." Cat's voice is back to husky and her eyes are still so dark, and when she slinks her tongue along her bottom lip, fingers tightening their hold at Kara's hips, Kara thinks she might pass out. "You can come over tonight, if you want. After Carter's gone to bed."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm. If you want to."

"Are you _kidding_? Of course I want to."  Cat laughs, and Kara pulls her into another kiss, because Cat is like a drug and she's always searching for her next fix. "Can I use your bathroom before we go?" Cat shows her where it is – tells her that no-one else is usually allowed to use the private bathroom, and that she should be honoured, with a smirk on her mouth that makes Kara roll her eyes.

When she returns, Cat is gathering up her things, and there's an envelope in her hands as she turns towards Kara with a soft smile playing across her lips. "What's that?" Kara asks as Cat fiddles with the thin piece of paper, Cat's name printed on the back in neat letters.

"This job comes with certain perks," Cat tells her as Kara comes to a stop beside her, hip leaning against the side of her desk. "One of which is tickets to different events that happen across the city, and on Friday night the Royal Shakespeare company are in town." Kara's eyes widen as she glances again at the little white envelope. "And a little bird called James Olsen told me that you're a fan."

"Hamlet, right? I tried to get tickets but they sold out within five minutes."

"Well, I have two right here." Cat waves the envelope. "And I was wondering if you'd like to go with me."

"I'd love to." Cat's eyes are as warm as her smile, and Kara's heart thuds as Cat tucks the tickets into her bag and takes her hand, dragging her towards her private elevator – which is apparently also an honour, or at least that's what Cat tells her before Kara kisses her breathless for the entire forty-floor ride down to the lobby, and Kara thinks, from the dazed look in Cat's eye as she blinks up at Kara when the doors slide open, that it won't be the last time she's allowed inside it.

x-x-x

"These seats are amazing," Kara breathes when she sees the view from the box Cat had led her into, curling her hands over the railing as she glances down at the stalls below them, the stage still hidden by a curtain, the show not quite ready to begin.

"Of course they are," Cat replies, and Kara turns to find her settling into one of the chairs, pleased smile on her face as she takes in the joy on Kara's. "I wouldn't have brought you if they weren't."

"Thank you," Kara murmurs, because she's been excited about this all week, and has been sure to let Cat know just _how_ appreciative of her she is whenever they've managed to spend the night together over the past few days. "Though if I was with you I'd enjoy it even if we were all the way up there on the back row." She gestures to the balcony above them, and Cat smiles. "This is better, though." She bites her bottom lip, eyes raking over the dress that Cat had donned for the evening – it's an electric blue, tight to her waist where it flares out to mid-thigh, and Cat always looks amazing but this dress might just be one of her favourites. "I get you all to myself."

"Mm, that is better," Cat agrees, and Kara is quick to move towards her, folds herself into the chair beside her and grins when Cat curls a hand around the collar of her shirt and tugs her into a kiss. It's chaste, because the lights are still bright and she and Cat had attracted a lot of attention upon their arrival, and neither of them want a blurry picture of them making out on the front page of all the gossip magazines come morning.

When the lights go down, though?

Oh, Kara's got plans, because Cat looks gorgeous, had kissed her senseless the entire car ride over here, wandering hands working her up and making it hard to think, and Kara thinks she's due some retribution.

And the thought of Cat trying to keep herself quiet and in control whilst Kara drags teasing fingertips over her thighs?

That's something she wants to see very, very much.

"How's Carter?" Kara had been running late, not keeping a close enough eye on the time whilst she'd been working in her studio that evening, so she'd barely even had the time to stick her head into the Grant's apartment to say hi before Cat had been rushing her back out the door. "Is he still not looking forward to this weekend?"

He was spending it with his father, and Kara knows he doesn't want to go. He'd told her, with a pout on his face during their lesson this week that he'd rather stay and spend the weekend with her and Cat, but it was Cat's ex’s birthday weekend so he was spending it upstate.

"No," Cat sighs, and Kara wonders just how difficult Carter has been about it. "He's going to throw a tantrum before Christopher comes to pick him up, I just know it. Unless..." Cat eyes her thoughtfully, and Kara shifts a little under her gaze. "Perhaps if you were there he wouldn't try it."

"You... want me there when your ex comes to get him?"

"Why not?" Cat shrugs. "He parades his girlfriend around in-front of me any chance he gets, why shouldn’t I do the same? You're about a thousand times hotter than she is, I'd love to see the look on his face." Kara's lips twitch, and her cheeks colour pink at Cat's words. "Unless it'd make you uncomfortable."

"No, no, not at all, I was just... surprised, I guess. I'm not going to get along with him, though," she cautions, because she already thinks he's an asshole. "Not after what he did to you."

"How chivalrous," Cat murmurs, teasing, and Kara rolls her eyes. "But you'll fit right in – he hates me, I hate him, the fiancée dislikes both me _and_ Carter, and Carter doesn't harbour many good feelings towards either one of them."

"Sounds... fun."

"Unfortunately we can't all have families as wonderful as yours." Kara reaches for Cat's hand and squeezes gently, rubbing her thumb over the back of her hand comfortingly. "I wanted so much for Carter, so much more than I ever got to have. My father's side of the family cut him off when he married my mother, so I never got to know them, and my mother's side.... well. You've met her, so I'm sure you can imagine." Cat sighs softly, and Kara squeezes her hand more tightly. "I wanted him to have more than that, two parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins... Instead he just got me."

"And you're enough," Kara tells her, voice soft and filled with certainty, because Cat is a fantastic mother, and Kara knows she doesn't feel like it, sometimes, when she's worked a sixty hour week and barely made it home in time to kiss him goodnight, but she's seen them together, seen the love and the adoration on Cat's face whenever she looks at him, and seen it reflected back in Carter's eyes. "And now..." She trails off, worrying at her bottom lip and wondering if she's about to say too much. "Now there's me, and there's Alex. James and Lucy loved having him around the other night, and I know Eliza's gonna love him, too. And I know we're not family, not to you, but... maybe one day we could be." Cat looks at her with soft, wide eyes that glitter with unshed tears, and Kara thinks she's definitely said too much. "I mean, I don’t mean to… I hope I'm not being too - "

Cat, sensing she's about to go into full-on ramble mode, cuts her off with a kiss, sweet and lingering, cradling her jaw with one hand and sweeping a thumb across Kara's cheek when she pulls away, eyes filled with awe.

"You might just be the most incredible woman I've ever met," Cat murmurs, voice quiet, still holding Kara close, and she knows, considering who Cat is, how many people she’s met throughout her life, that that is high praise indeed. "And you amaze me more and more every single day." Kara smiles softly, her heart beating double time in her chest because she swears that the way Cat is looking at her... she swears her eyes are filled with love. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being you." Cat presses their lips together again, deepens it when the lights flicker off overhead, fingers sliding into Kara's hair and tugging gently, and when she pulls away Kara has to force herself to look away, can barely concentrate as the stage is revealed and the play begins, because Cat is warm at her side and her lips still tingle from her kiss.

She rests one arm across the back of Cat’s chair, Cat leaning into her side as she draws aberrant patterns with her fingertips on the bare skin of her shoulder. Cat shivers beneath the touch, and she’s so _distracting_ , perfume intoxicating, skin soft and smooth and Kara’s eyes keep lingering on Cat’s profile, watching her reactions to the actors on-stage.

“You’re supposed to be watching this, not me,” Cat murmurs after a while, and Kara grins and presses her lips against Cat’s cheek.

“You’re much too distracting,” she breathes against Cat’s cheek, watching the way her lips curve into a slow smile.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kara shrugs, though she does lean back in her seat and tries to concentrate, because she _had_ been looking forward to this and she doesn’t know if she’ll ever get the chance to see something like it again.

Cat slips away during the interval, returns with two glasses of wine and Kara accepts one gratefully, smiling when Cat immediately cuddles back into her side once she’s sat back down, wraps her arm back around dainty shoulders as she lifts her wine to her lips.

“I’ve been thinking...” Cat starts, shifting a little in her seat to meet her gaze. “While Carter’s away next weekend… I have a beach house. We don’t use it much in the winter, but it might be nice to get away from the city for a couple of days. Spend some time alone.” Kara hates that Cat can still, even now, look so vulnerable whenever she’s asking her to do something together. “The views are fantastic, if you wanted to bring some painting supplies.”

“You know that spending the weekend alone with you would be enough reason for me to go, right? You don’t need to bribe me with the promise of good scenery.” Cat’s lips twitch at her teasing. “I’d love to go.”

“And you can finally take me on that bike of yours.”

“You really have a thing for the bike, huh?” Cat’s eyes glitter with a spark of something wicked, and Kara swallows, throat feeling suddenly dry.

“I have a thing for hot women in leather,” Cat murmurs, and she grins. “And for speeding along coastal roads with my arms wrapped _around_ hot women in leather.”

“Should I be jealous?”

“No.” Kara’s grin widens.

“I don’t have enough space on my bike to take all the stuff we’d need for a weekend away.”

“I can have one of my drivers take down our things before we leave,” Cat says, and Kara wonders how long she’s been planning this for.

“Okay,” Kara agrees, because the thought of getting away for the weekend sounds amazing and she and Cat really haven’t spent as much time together lately as she’d like. Of course, she’d _like_ to spend every waking moment with her if it were possible, but she’ll settle for two days in a secluded beach house any day of the week. “I’ll drop my stuff off at your place on Friday morning?” Cat nods. “And then I’ll find my best leathers,” she continues, smirking when Cat’s tongue wets her bottom lip. “And I’ll take you out for a spin.”

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to keep my hands to myself on the drive,” Cat says, voice low, and Kara huffs out a low laugh.

“You’re going to have to, because if you touch me whilst I’m driving I’m going to crash,” Kara tells her. “I don’t have that much self-control.”

“No?”

“No.” Cat gives her one of those sinful smirks, and when the lights dim once more Kara ducks forward and kisses it from her lips, deep and slow, grinning when Cat gasps into her mouth as she licks at the back of her teeth.

“You’re going to miss the play,” Cat murmurs when they part, breathless, her eyes large and dark in the muted light, and Kara doesn’t even care, not with Cat this close, not when Cat feels like her whole world.

“I know what happens.” Cat gives a little roll of her eyes that makes her grin again. “Pretty sure you do, too.”

“Not the point.” Cat turns away, and Kara humours her – at least for now. But as the play nears the end, she can’t help but let her hands wander, when Cat crosses her legs and that damn dress slides up to reveal several inches of smooth, pale skin, and she shifts her arm from around Cat’s shoulders to rest her hand on her upper thigh, instead.

Cat tenses, the tiniest amount, when Kara inches her hand higher, eyes fixed on the stage and pretending she’s still engrossed in the play, when in reality she’s keeping an eye on Cat’s reaction, doesn’t miss the tiny hitch in her breath when Kara drags her nails along her inner thigh and down to her knee.

“Want me to stop?” She asks, leaning close to press her mouth against Cat’s ear, teasing at her earlobe with her teeth and getting a quiet groan in response.

“No,” Cat breathes, and Kara’s heart beats faster in her chest as she ducks her head to press an open-mouthed kiss to Cat’s neck, biting at the skin just hard enough for Cat to feel it, but not enough to leave a mark that’ll last for more than a few seconds.

“Shall we test _your_ self-control?” She asks, voice low and Cat shudders as Kara’s hand slides even higher on her thigh, fingers disappearing beneath the hem of her dress.

“God, yes,” Cat murmurs, already struggling to control her breathing, and Kara smiles against Cat’s skin, dragging her fingers higher. She expects to encounter the lace barrier of Cat’s underwear and bites down hard on her bottom lip when she discover that she’s not actually wearing any.

“H-how often do you go to things like this without any underwear?”

“More often than you might think,” Cat tells her, and Kara squeezes her thighs together as the thought sends a bolt of heat straight to her core. “They leave lines, Kara, and no-one wants to see that.” She parts her thighs for Kara’s hand, eyes still fixed firmly on the stage, sighing softly as Kara’s fingers encounter slick flesh.

“Have… have you ever not worn them when we’ve gone somewhere?”

“Your gallery opening,” Cat murmurs, and Kara whimpers at the knowledge, dragging two fingers over Cat’s clit and watching her bite viciously at her bottom lip to smother a moan. “Once or twice when you’ve visited me at work.” She drags her fingers lower, teases at Cat’s entrance before tracing a slow line back up to her clit and circling lightly as Cat struggles to keep her hips still. “T-the gala. I wondered, when you had your hand on my thigh under the table, whether you’d figure it out. What you’d do if you did.”

“Jesus, Cat.” Cat’s breathing is laboured, and her cheeks are flushed, but other than that she shows no reaction to Kara’s fingers working between her thighs. “I’m never going to be able to look at you in a dress again without wondering if you’re bare beneath it.”

“You’ll just have to – oh,” she’s cut off by a quiet moan as Kara’s fingers slip inside of her, despite the awkward angle, “c-check.”

“Mm, I like the sound of that.” Kara’s mouth is still at Cat’s ear, but she dips her head to press a bite against Cat’s pulse point, feels it thundering beneath her lips. “Dropping to my knees and pushing your skirt up over your hips.” Cat whimpers, Kara’s fingers returning to her clit. “So I can see what’s underneath.”

“Keep talking,” Cat breathes, hands clutching tightly at the arms of her chair, knuckles flashing white, and Kara is only too happy to oblige.

“This dress wouldn’t leave any lines.” Her breath is hot against Cat’s ear and she shudders, Kara’s fingers working faster until she can feel the tension thrumming through Cat’s body, the desperate desire to arch against her, and she’s biting so hard at her bottom lip that Kara worries that she might draw blood. “So did you choose to leave your panties at home because you thought something like this would happen? Because you wanted me to fuck you here, where anyone could look up and see?”

“ _Kara_.” It’s a breathless, desperate whisper, and god, Kara wants to hear nothing else other than Cat say her name like that, over and over again for the rest of her life.

“Did you know that I’ve thought about this?” She says then, slowing her hand and making Cat groan in frustration, and Kara takes a minute to glance towards the stage, focus on what they’re saying and trying to work out how long they have before the end, because the last thing they need is to be caught like this, her hand under Cat’s skirt, when the lights flicker back to life. “Wondered what you’d look like, trying to keep yourself under control? What it would take to make you _lose_ it? Whether you’d be able to come without letting the whole room know it?”

There isn’t long before the final scene, and she circles her fingers faster, moaning quietly into Cat’s ear when she brings down one of her hands to rest on Kara’s thigh, nails digging into her skin. “Are you going to come for me, Cat? Are you going to be able to make sure that no-one notices, that no-one looks up and sees how much you want me?”

She whimpers again, nails biting harder against her thigh, and Kara uses her free hand to turn Cat’s head towards her as she feels her begin to tremble beneath her hand, pulls her into a kiss to smother the sound of her soft moan when she comes, hard and shaking, against her.

“God,” she breathes when she pulls away, resting her forehead, damp with sweat, against Kara’s shoulder as she tries to catch her breath. “I don’t know how long I’m going to survive with you.” Kara grins, slipping her fingers free and licking them clean as surreptitiously as she can manage, Cat’s dark, dark eyes watching her closely. “Who knew someone who looks so innocent could be so filthy?”

“No-one but you,” Kara murmurs, because she’s never done anything like this before in her life, her heart still racing with the exhilaration of it, and it speeds up even more when Cat flashes her a predatory smile.

“When we get home,” Cat tells her, voice hot in her ear as she grasps Kara’s shirt collar tightly, holding her in place, “I’m going to make you put that mouth to good use.” Kara groans at the thought, and again when Cat’s tongue flicks against her skin. “And then I’m going to make you come so many times you pass out.”

_God_.

She can hardly wait.


	15. Chapter 15

“Hey, Mom.” Cat glances up at the sound of Carter’s voice, smiling for what feels like the first time that afternoon as he traipses into her office and drops his bag down beside one of her couches before throwing himself down onto it and stretching his legs out.

“Hi sweetheart – shoes off if you’re putting your feet up,” she cautions, and he rolls his eyes but kicks of his sneakers. “How was your day?”

“It was okay,” he shrugs, his usual answer she asks him about school. “Apart from biology, that was cool. We learned about cell division. Oh, and they announced the date for the science fair!” His eyes light up, because it’s his favourite event in the school calendar, and he’s won each and every single year he’s taken part. “I was wondering…” He trails off, looking at her warily, and Cat waits for him to finish his sentence. “I know you usually help when you can but… I was thinking about asking Alex this year?” He’s looking at the floor as he asks, mumbling his words, and Cat waits until he darts his eyes back up towards her before she answers.

“That’s a wonderful idea, Carter,” she says, injecting her voice with warmth to soothe his obvious nerves.

“You… you do?”

“I do. She is a scientist, after all, and I am not.” His projects the last couple of years have been elaborate enough for Cat to need to do more than a little research into before she could even begin to help him.

She’d made more than a few phone calls to leading experts in whatever field Carter’s projects were based on than she’d probably care to admit.

“And I know you enjoy spending time with her,” she continues, because Alex Danvers comes up a _lot_ in conversations with Carter since the day they’d met, second only to Kara.

“Do you think she’d say yes?” Carter asks, almost hesitantly, and Cat smiles softly at him from where she sits behind her desk.

“I don’t see why not,” she tells him, smile widening when he grins. “But we can ask Kara first to see what she thinks. She should be here shortly.”

Kara’s currently in a meeting several floors down with some of the Trib’s creative team, pitching her comic strip idea as a bid to increase sales. Cat isn’t sure it’ll work, but she’s just about desperate enough to try anything, and she knows that Carter has had fun in helping Kara come up with a suitable hero for the tales.

“But until then, why don’t you make a start on your homework, young man?” He grumbles, but gets to work, pulling out a book from his bag and setting it carefully on the glass coffee table, choosing to sit on the floor with his legs under it instead of leaning over from the couch.

She’d had him brought to the office after school instead of home because she’d wanted to spend more than a handful of minutes with him before he was whisked away by his father for the weekend. She hates the time he’s away, hates not having him nearby where she can keep a close eye on him, even though she knows he’s in (relatively) safe hands.

She’s glad for the distraction that she knows her stay at the beach house with Kara will bring, but she’s still going to miss her baby boy.

“Knock knock.” Kara’s voice cuts through the room a few moments later, interrupting Cat’s typing and Carter scribbling away, and they both turn to face her with matching smiles, and Kara laughs when Carter scrambles up from the floor to fling his arms around her waist. “Hey buddy. You have a good day at school?”

“Mhm.” Cat watches them fondly as Kara ruffles a hand through his hair and Carter makes a face, still so amazed at how freely he offers her physical contact, despite her still being a relatively new addition to their lives.

“And have you had a good day at work?” Kara asks as Carter releases her, choosing to settle on the couch opposite him instead of crossing over to Cat at her desk.

“Average,” she replies, because nothing has gone terribly wrong but she’s been busy, setting everything in order so that she (hopefully) won’t be needed over the weekend. “But nothing I can’t handle. How was your meeting?”

“They seemed a little unsure, but I think I won them over.” She flashes Cat her brightest smile, and she can see how Kara could have managed to do just that. “They’re willing to print our first one next week.”

“Will it be ready by then?”

“What do you think, Carter?” She turns to ask him, his bright eyes listening to them with interest.

“I think so!” He’s excited about this project, more so than Cat has seen him about anything for a while. “I can work on it this weekend when I get bored.” Cat’s lips twitch at the weariness of his voice, because she knows he’s not looking forward to going away.

“And then we can talk about it when you come back on Sunday.” Cat smiles, grateful that Kara has given him something to look forward to. “I need to get it to the print team by Wednesday at the latest, if we want it in the Friday issue.”

“And you’re sure this isn’t going to interfere with your other work?” Cat asks, unable to prevent her concern showing in her voice. “You know, work you actually get paid for?”

“I can multi-task,” Kara assures her, and Cat merely purses her lips. “If it gets to be too much, I’ll tell you, okay? I promise.”

“Mm, you’d better,” she threatens, but Kara’s sweet smile is enough to make her soften. “And before we both forget, Carter has something to ask you.”

“Oh yeah!” Carter’s excitement returns full force. “My school’s science fair is coming up, and I wanted to know if you thought Alex would maybe be willing to help me with it.” He’s not as shy asking Kara now that he knows that Cat’s okay with it, though he still struggles to look her in the eye.

“I think she’d love that,” Kara tells him brightly. “She was awesome at those, she always won, and she’d never help me with mine.” There’s a tiny pout on her mouth that makes both her and Carter chuckle quietly. “It’ll give her a chance to re-live her youth.”

“Isn’t she only twenty seven?” Cat asks, dryly. “She’s still _in_ her youth.”

“Semantics,” Kara shrugs, and Cat shakes her head. “What about you, anyway? Were you a science fair champ?”

“We never had them,” she admits.

“School too posh for that?” Kara’s eyes are bright, her tone teasing, and god, Cat could do this all day.

“Evidently,” she drawls. “We were too busy learning proper etiquette, like which cutlery to use first at a sit-down dinner.” Her lips curve into a smile, remembering Kara’s lost look at the gala as she’d looked at all the silverware.

“Rude.” Her smile widens, and then falters when her computer pings with a new email, reminding her that she should probably be working and not flirting with her girlfriend in the middle of her office. “We’re distracting you, aren’t we?”

“It’s a welcome one, believe me,” she murmurs a distracted reply as she slides her glasses back on her nose to read the email. “But I still have a few things I need to do before I leave for the day.”

“We can be quiet, right, kid?”

“I find it hard to believe,” Cat murmurs as she types out a reply to her finance director, “that you have ever been quiet a day in your life.” Kara pouts, and Cat finds that, and her penchant for rambling, absolutely endearing.

“I can be quiet.”

“She’s quiet when she’s painting,” Carter pipes up, and when Cat looks up she smiles when she sees that he’s already back to working on his homework. “So maybe it’s just you, Mom.”

“Yeah, you encourage me,” Kara grins, even as she’s settling that sketchbook she always carries around with her over her knees – Cat remembers the last time she’d seen it, remembers pulling it off Kara’s lap as she’d sat on her balcony, remembers falling to her knees and losing herself between strong thighs, against soft flesh.

Her eyes flicker towards the balcony, the balcony that she can no longer look at without thinking about Kara, a strong hand in her hair and hips canting against her face, breathless and gorgeous above her, and her city below.

When see makes eye contact with Kara again, she’s swallowing thickly, and there’s a flush on her cheeks, and Cat smirks, knowing that she’s not the only one thinking about their little balcony tryst.

“Do I, now?” She asks, almost too quietly for Kara to hear, and she chooses not to answer Cat, searching for a pencil and settling back on the couch whilst Cat gets back to work.

It doesn’t take her long – Carter and Kara are both silent, both absorbed in what they’re doing and Cat only gets distracted a couple of times, glancing up and towards them and smiling softly at the sight of them, both of her favourite people in the same room with her.

It doesn’t happen as regularly as she’d like, because often when she has time to spare with Kara inviting Carter along would severely kill the mood, but she hasn’t let it interfere with the time she spends with him.

It means a lot of late nights in her home study, a few hours less sleep than she should probably be getting, but it’s worth it, to snatch that precious time with both her son and her girlfriend, and leave this office far behind.

And the nights the three of them spend together are special, too. Cat could never get tired of watching the two of them together, the ease that they interact with, and one of her new favourite things to do is to cuddle up on the couch with the both of them, Kara usually in the middle with her legs tangled with Cat’s beneath a blanket, and she’d often glance over at her son to find him fast asleep on Kara’s shoulder.

“Miss Grant?” Cat looks up at the light knock on her door, waves James Olsen in when she sees him hovering just outside her office. “I have those fashion spreads you asked for.”

“Wonderful, James, thank you.” He crosses the room in several quick, easy strides to set them on the edge of her desk. “If you don’t mind waiting a few minutes, I can give them a once-over now and you can take them straight to print.”

“Okay.” She finishes her edits, first, though, slashing through another paragraph with her red pen as James wanders over to lean against the couch Kara’s sitting at. “Hey, Kara. Carter.”

“Hi, James.” Carter wears a shy smile as he glances up at Cat’s art director, and it’s one that is warmly returned as Cat shuffles papers around to make room for James’ spreads. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“You too. You’ll have to come over for games night again sometime. Watching you beat Lucy at Mario Kart was a highlight of the night for me.”

“And me,” Kara adds, lips twitching into a smile even though she doesn’t glance up from the page in-front of her. “She gets so worked up whenever she loses.”

“And she doesn’t let us play video games usually because she’s so terrible at them, but she can’t say no to you. Lucy’s back in town next weekend, if you and your Mom,” Cat glances up to find him looking uncertainly her way, “want to come over. It’s our turn to host.”

“If our schedule is clear,” Cat replies on behalf of them both when Carter throws her his best pleading look, “then we’ll try and be there.” She waves the fashion spreads towards him, satisfied they’re up to her usual standards – they usually are, when they come from James. He’s probably one of her best employees, not that she’s ever planning on telling him that. “These are good to go. And could you hand these to one of the two idiots out there,” his lips twitch at the dual nickname she often gave to her assistants when they were being particularly unhelpful as she hands over her completed edits, “and tell them to send these back to wherever they came from for corrections.”

“Yes, Miss Grant.” He scoops them up under one arm, and waves to Kara and Carter with his free hand as he leaves. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys again soon.”

Cat finishes everything else on her priority list within the hour, just as both Carter and Kara begin getting restless and complaining about being hungry, so Cat rolls her eyes and packs up her things and ushers them both into her waiting car, firing off a few final emails before slipping her tablet back into her bag with a grateful sigh.

They stop off at a restaurant on the way, because Cat is exhausted and doesn’t feel like cooking when they get home, and it cheers Carter up about his impending weekend away when she lets him pick the place.

He chatters excitedly about his day as they eat, and Kara listens just as intently as Cat does, and Cat swears that each and every second she spends with this woman she falls for her more and more. It’s her complete love for Carter that is Cat’s undoing, and she remembers Kara’s words from that night at the theatre (‘we’re not family, not yet, but maybe one day we could be’), and glances between Kara and her son, talking excitedly about their comic project with Kara’s hand warm on her thigh, and wonders if maybe they already are.

They drive past an ice rink, set up for the winter, on the way home, and Carter’s eyes light up when he notices it, and Cat groans inwardly, because she knows he’s going to –

“Mom, can we go?”

“We’ll see, Carter,” she tells him, reluctantly, because she’s _terrible_ at ice skating and it worries her when he’s on the ice, when he could fall and hurt himself, and she wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop it.

“Can I come?” Kara asks, eyes almost as bright as Carter’s, and Cat swears that sometimes she feels like she’s looking after two teenagers, and not just one.

“Perfect – you can take him.”

“No, Mom, you have to come too! We can have a family day, like at the zoo.” She stiffens slightly at his use of the word, and Kara shifts a little awkwardly beside her, but Cat doesn’t bring it up.

“What’s the matter? Scared?” Kara’s voice is teasing, but Cat just levels her with a glare until the smile drops off her face. “I won’t let you fall,” she promises, more seriously. “I’m kinda awesome at ice skating. My foster Mom used to take me and Alex all the time.”

“See, Mom? It’ll be fun!” Cat sighs, looking between the pair of them, both staring back at her with pleading eyes, and rolls her own skyward.

“Fine,” she sighs, and receives two radiant smiles in response. “But,” she lowers her voice to murmur a warning into Kara’s ear when Carter returns to staring out of the window, “if you let go of me and I fall, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

“I-I won’t.” She smirks at Kara’s stutter, affected by her close proximity, and there’s a pleased smile on Cat’s mouth when she settles back in her seat. “You’ll be skating around that rink like a pro in no time.”

“You’ve never seen my Mom skate,” Carter says, cheekily, and Cat narrows her eyes towards her son, who just looks back at her with his best innocent look.

“I’m a very good teacher.”

“No-one’s _that_ good.” Cat can’t even be outraged, not when they’re both chuckling quietly with those damn sunny smiles on their mouths, so instead she just rolls her eyes skyward once more.

“Make sure you’ve got all your things packed,” she calls to Carter once they’re back in her apartment and he’s racing down the hall, Kara slipping away to go and get changed, and she just gets a grunt in response as she pads towards her own bedroom, swapping her dress and heels for a pair of black jeans, an old faded t-shirt, and her favourite pair of boots.

She finds both Kara and Carter in her living room when she returns, Carter’s overnight bag lying on the floor by the side of the couch, and when there’s a knock on her front door a few moments later Cat sighs and steels herself for her next encounter with her ex-husband.

“Christopher,” she murmurs when she opens the door to reveal him on the other side, thankful to see that he’s left the fiancée at home, this time.

“Cat.” He’s just as gruff as usual, like it’s _her_ fault they’d ended things, and she grits her teeth and steps aside to let him in. “Hey, buddy,” he calls when he sees Carter, and at least the smile on his face is genuine. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Carter murmurs, rising a little reluctantly from the couch, and Cat watches Chris’s face carefully as he notices Kara sitting beside Carter on the couch. “You’ll be here when I get back on Sunday?” He asks her, eyes wide and hopeful, and Kara grins.

“’Course I will, kid. As long as your Mom isn’t bored of me by then.” Her eyes flicker towards Cat, and then land on Christopher, her eyes dark and her smile not as bright as usual.

“Unlikely to ever happen,” Cat replies softly, and there’s a look of open distaste on Christopher’s face that makes her rejoice.

“You’ve introduced her to Carter already?” He mutters as Carter is gathering up his things, and she rolls her eyes as she turns away from her son to meet her ex-husband’s eyes, wondering what she’d ever seen in him. “Haven’t you only been dating a week?”

“They knew one another before we started dating,” Cat replies tightly. “Not that it’s any of your _business_.”

“I just like to know who’s around my son.”

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Cat hisses, eyes flashing with anger, “considering you didn’t tell me you’d moved your new piece into your house before Carter came to stay with you.”

“It slipped my mind.” Cat scoffs – she’d spent an hour talking to a tearful Carter, who’d been thrown by the unexpected appearance of another woman in his father’s home, a woman that didn’t understand or respect that Carter needed to be introduced to new people slowly and carefully, lest it send him into a spiral.

“Yes, I’m sure it did. Well, there’s no need to worry – Kara’s a dozen times better with him than Anastasia will ever be.” As if to punctuate her words, Kara helps Carter lift his bag onto his shoulder before he pulls her into a goodbye hug – Christopher looks stunned, and Cat smirks as both Kara and Carter approach them. “As I’m sure you can see.”

“Kara, right?” Kara eyes him warily, and the dislike is clear as day on her face, though only if you know to look for it, and when he extends a hand towards her, she doesn’t lift her hands from Carter’s shoulders to take it, and he lets it drop back down to his side with a shrug. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Her smile is forced, but polite, and they’re both sizing the other up, and Cat rolls her eyes at the display.

“Shouldn’t you be going if you intend to be home by midnight?” She asks, pointedly, and Christopher nods as Kara gives Carter a little push towards his father. “Call me tomorrow, sweetheart?” Carter nods, giving her a quick hug goodbye. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, Mom. See you soon, Kara.” He traipses down the hall at his father’s side, and Cat watches them go with a sigh.

“He’ll be okay,” Kara murmurs, appearing behind her to wrap her arms around Cat’s waist and pull her into her chest.

“I know, I just hate him being away from me. I miss him too much.”

“I’ll distract you,” Kara promises, voice low in her ear.

“Mm, I don’t doubt that.” She turns in Kara’s arms, glances down to take in the leather pants and the even tighter white shirt appreciatively, and can’t resist sliding her hands into Kara’s back pockets and squeezing.

“Ready to go?” She’d sent both her and Kara’s bags down to the beach house earlier that morning, only needs the purse that’s sitting on the table by her front door, but she shakes her head and steals a kiss when Kara frowns down at her, because she hasn’t had one yet today and that is _unacceptable_.

Kara kisses her back earnestly, pressing her against the wall beside her front door, and she sighs as Kara’s tongue licks into her mouth, squeezes at Kara’s ass harder and moans when she slots a thigh between her legs in response, arching her hips against the pressure as Kara sucks on her bottom lip.

“ _Now_ are you ready to go?” Kara asks when she parts their lips, smile on her mouth as Cat looks up at her through dazed eyes. “Because if we carry this on I don’t think I’m going to want to leave your bedroom anytime soon.”

“Good point.” Kara presses one more, chaste, kiss to her lips before leaning away, taking Cat’s hand and pulling her along with her until they’re in the parking garage, leading Cat over to the bike she’s been admiring for so long and tossing her a helmet. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on one of these,” Cat murmurs as she pulls it over her head, zipping up her jacket as she watches Kara swing a leg over the bike and rev the engine to life.

“Just hold on tight and you’ll be fine.” Cat rolls her eyes even though Kara isn’t looking and misses the movement, managing to clamber on behind Kara without too much trouble, despite her shorter legs. She slips her arms around Kara’s waist, crossing them over her stomach, and raises her feet from the floor as Kara eases them forward, holding on for dear life.

It’s dark out, but the city lights are beautiful as they whizz through the streets, Kara’s control impeccable as she steers them around corners and flies past cars, and the wind whips at Cat’s body though she doesn’t feel the chill, not when Kara is so warm at her front.

Her exhilaration only grows as they leave the city behind, moving onto the freeway, and Cat turns her head to watch National City grow smaller and smaller behind them, the lights twinkling and her building standing tall and proud amidst all the other skyscrapers. She laughs as Kara pushes them faster, breathless and free as they race along the coastal roads, the ocean churning on one side of them, the sky above them beautiful and clear, the stars shining brightly in the absence of artificial light.

Kara slows as they reach the cliffs where Cat’s property is located, allowing them both the chance to take in the stunning view the height offers them, ocean stretching out far into the distance, waves crashing into the rocks below them, and Cat can’t wait to watch the sunrise and the sunset on the horizon with Kara wrapped in her arms.

“This place is amazing,” Kara breathes when they reach the iron gates that keep her beach house away from prying eyes, and Cat hums as she types in the code on the keypad, slipping back behind Kara as they swing open.

She guides Kara over to the garage, climbs off the bike and yanks off her helmet, handing it back to Kara, whose cheeks are red and eyes are bright. Cat can’t help but lean forward to kiss her senseless, Kara still sitting astride the bike, her hands strong and sure as she tangles one in Cat’s hair and settles the other around her hip, using it to pull her closer.

They manage to separate long enough for Kara to switch off the ignition, and Cat takes her hand and pulls her through the door that leads into the rest of the house, hears Kara let out a low whistle as she takes it all in.

It’s a beautiful house, and Cat had had to fight hard to get it, but it was worth every single cent. The ground floor is open plan, all exposed wooden beams and rustic but tasteful furniture, and there are huge bay windows that run along the entire front wall of the house, revealing the private beach and the ocean beyond.

Cat often gets distracted when she’s cooking, or when she’s watching the TV or trying to work in the little office space she’s got on the upper floor, because the view is stunning, and sometimes she just can’t look away from it.

Kara feels the same, judging from the way she immediately crosses over to the windows and presses her face against the glass, awe in her eyes.

“This place is amazing,” she repeats, and Cat smiles softly. “Why would you ever leave?”

“It’s hard to, in the summer,” Cat admits, because when the sun is shining and it’s ridiculously hot outside, sometimes all she wants to do is don a bathing suit and take a moment to relax on the sand, instead of shutting herself away in her greenhouse of an office, despite the killer air con system she’s got installed in the building. “But the commute isn’t ideal. It’s easier to live in the middle of the city and use this for the weekends, especially with the hours I keep, never knowing when I’m going to make it home.”

She pulls open the glass door to let Kara onto the deck outside whilst she checks the state of the kitchen, smiling when she finds it fully stocked, thanks to her driver who she’d asked to pick up a few things on the way, and she makes a mental note to give him a raise this month for the extra trouble.

Kara retreats back inside after a few minutes, shivering from the cold, the wind whipping up a gale outside, stirring the sand, and Cat leads her upstairs, thankful to find a fire blazing in the grate at one end of her bedroom, their bags neatly deposited at the end of the king-sized bed.

There’s a collage on one wall, a mixture of photographs from her and Carter’s visits over the years, and Kara is drawn to it immediately, gazing down at it with curious eyes as Cat slips into the bathroom to freshen up.

“He was a cute baby,” Kara murmurs when Cat reappears, still standing in-front of the collage with a small smile on her face. “I like this one.” She points to the photograph of Cat buried up to her neck in the sand, a giggling Carter, only four years old, standing over her. “Who took it?”

“Why, are you jealous?” Cat asks with a smirk, and Kara rolls her eyes. “His nanny. When I was particularly busy and whilst he was still young, she used to come up here some weekends and stay with us. She was an aspiring photographer, so she took a lot of pictures of the two of us.”

Cat is glad about that, because it means that she has plenty of photographs of both she and Carter together in addition to the ones she’d taken of him herself – she has dozens of scrap books at home, hidden away in a drawer, that she’ll riffle through every now and again, often whenever Carter is with his father and she’s missing him.

“She was a good one,” Kara murmurs, eyes fixed on the centre photograph of a tired-looking Cat with a bundle of blankets in her arms, Carter’s round face peering out of them, chubby cheeks red and his eyes closed.

“That was what I used to look like before running a company and raising a son took its toll on me,” Cat murmurs, mostly joking – she knows she looks fabulous, works hard to keep herself fit and healthy and looking at least ten years younger than she actually is.

“It hardly took its toll,” Kara scoffs, turning and pulling Cat into her arms.

“Liar,” Cat murmurs against Kara’s lips as she ducks her head to kiss her.

“Not lying,” Kara says when they part, hand cradling Cat’s jaw and a thumb sweeping across her cheek, the touch reverent. “You’re beautiful.” Cat could spend a lifetime looking into Kara’s eyes at that moment, glittering in the light from the fire, filled with enough awe and adoration to make her knees week. “So beautiful that sometimes I can barely believe that you’re real.”

“Funny,” Cat replies, voice barely higher than a whisper, her hands resting on the small of Kara’s back, just beneath the hem of her shirt, her skin burning beneath her palms, “because I think the same thing about you.”

“Then that must mean we’re a perfect match,” Kara grins, and Cat rolls her eyes, kisses her again just to shut her up. Kara’s laugh echoes into her mouth, and Cat slides her hands to Kara’s hips and uses them to urge her backwards towards the bed, pushing until she’s sitting at the edge of it, Cat climbing onto her lap and settling a knee on either side of her hips.

She tugs her shirt over her head when their lips part, throws it over her shoulder, and Kara runs her hands from Cat’s shoulders and down her sides until she reaches her hips, where she spreads tanned fingers across pale skin.

The room is dark, lit only by the soft glow of the fire, crackling away behind them, and the sliver of moonlight that spills in through the large windows that overlook the waves, and the view outside is beautiful but it doesn’t compare to the way Kara looks at her in that moment, eyes as dark and deep as the ocean, and filled with the beauty and light of the sun, and she’s Cat’s very own personal miracle, cradled in her arms.

Kara slides a hand from her hip to trace up along her spine until she’s cupping the back of her neck, bringing her down for another kiss that leaves her breathless. Tonight Cat plans on losing herself in Kara completely, drowning herself in those blue eyes, and she doesn’t think, as Kara holds her closer and slips a hand between their bodies, that she’s ever going to want to come back up for air.

x-x-x

Cat wakes the next morning with aching muscles and a sleepy smile, the sun warm on her back but the bed beside her, when she stretches out a hand, cold, and she frowns as she blinks her eyes open to see that Kara’s gone.

She hears a noise from her other side and turns, finds Kara curled up in the oversized armchair by the window, table pulled up beside her with her watercolours sitting on-top of it, a sketchbook open in her lap and a paintbrush in her hand.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Kara murmurs when she glances over at her, lopsided smile on her mouth, and Cat stretches and groans as she feels her muscle protest the movement, aching from the night before.

“What time is it?”

“Nearly eleven.” Cat’s eyebrows rise in surprise, because she hasn’t slept this late in years. “Apparently I tired you out last night.” A slow smirk spreads across Kara’s lips, very obviously pleased with herself, and Cat would roll her eyes if she weren’t so boneless.

“I don’t even know how you managed to get up,” Cat admits, rolling onto her back and stretching her arms above her head, smirking when Kara’s eyes dip to her chest as the sheet slips down to her waist. “I don’t think I can move.”

“You don’t have to,” Kara murmurs, setting her paintbrush down, very carefully, and Cat catches a glimpse of the watercolour painting in her lap, a hauntingly beautiful snapshot of the view from where she sits, of the beach and ocean below, the cliffs jutting high into the sky in the distance. “You can stay in bed all day.”

“I haven’t done that since I was in college.” Kara arches an eyebrow as if to say ‘seriously?’, and this time Cat does roll her eyes. “Does that really surprise you?”

“No, I guess not. You’re too restless for that.” Cat shoots her a questioning look, and Kara shrugs. “You’re always on the move, always doing something. You’re rarely still, and when you are, your hands are usually still moving.” Cat’s surprised that Kara had even noticed, and she smiles at the look on Cat’s face. “Artist, remember? It’s kinda important for me to be observant.”

“True,” Cat concedes, because she could say the same of her own profession.

“Want some coffee? I made a pot before. There’s pancakes, too.”

“How long have you been awake?”

“Awhile,” she shrugs. “The sun woke me up and then I thought I could get a couple of hours of painting done before you woke up so I didn’t go back to sleep.”

“I should get up,” Cat mumbles when Kara sets down her sketchbook and rises to her feet, and when Cat tries to follow her Kara pushes her back down with an index finger pressed against her sternum.

“Ah, ah. Stay. I have plans for you.”

“If they’re of the sexual variety I’m not sure I’m up for that yet,” Cat admits, because she’s still a little sore between her thighs – Kara had made good on her promise to use Cat’s strap-on on her last night, had tipped her into oblivion a grand total of seven times before Cat had practically passed out beside her, sweaty and _exhausted_. “I’m not as young as you, I can’t bounce back as quickly.” Kara grins, more than a little smug, and dips down to steal a kiss from Cat’s lips.

“They’re not. Well, maybe later…” She trails off, quirking one of her eyebrows up suggestively, and Cat gives a wry shake of her head. “But I was kind of thinking… hoping, really, that… well, that you’d let me paint on you.”

“ _On_ me?” Cat clarifies, as Kara worries at her bottom lip and nods.

“The watercolours, they’re safe, for that, and it’s kind of… I’ve kind of been thinking about it for a while. Using you as a canvas. If… if you want me to.”

“I don’t see why not.” The thought sends a thrill through her, Kara settling above her and drawing a brush against her skin in soft, slow strokes. “As long as it doesn’t take too long. I am restless, after all.” Kara grins, kisses her again before disappearing downstairs, returning a few moments later with a mug of coffee and two pancakes smothered in maple syrup, exactly the way Cat likes them.

Kara continues her landscape whilst Cat eats, and she sips at her coffee and watches Kara work, her profile stunning, framed in the light from the sun, and Cat can’t resist reaching for her phone and snapping a picture of the moment.

“What was that for?” Kara asks without looking up, hearing the click of the shutter, and Cat shrugs.

“What, I’m not allowed to take sneaky photos of my _very_ photogenic girlfriend now?” Kara just smiles, finishes what she’s doing as Cat sets her mug down on the bedside table with a definitive little clink. “Where do you want me?” She asks as Kara rises to her feet, observing her with a critical eye – eyes that darken at Cat’s words, and she hides her smirk behind a yawn.

“On your front, I think. I’ll paint the sunrise on your back.” Cat hums, rolling over and stretching her arms beneath one of her pillows and resting her head on-top of it, turning to the side to watch Kara get herself set up.

She disappears briefly to fetch a towel, tells Cat she doesn’t want to ruin the sheets, and Cat lays it out beneath her before stretching back out on the bed, sighing happily when Kara swings a leg over her waist and settles her weight experimentally on-top of Cat, resting just above her ass.

Cat closes her eyes, expecting the brush of bristles against her skin, and moans when she feels the press of Kara’s lips, instead. She leaves a slow trail of open-mouthed kisses down the bumps of Cat’s spine, before spreading her hands over her shoulder blades and massaging some of the knots out of her aching muscles, and Cat feels like she’s in heaven.

She pouts when Kara’s hands leave her skin, and Kara chuckles quietly above her before leaning to one side, and this time Cat _does_ get to feel the paintbrush against her skin, the touch light and making her shiver as Kara strokes a wide line across the small of her back.

It’s more relaxing than Cat would have ever imagined, and it almost has her falling back to sleep – only the occasional movements of Kara above her, shifting her weight or leaning over to switch colours, keep her awake, keep her hyper-aware of the careful stroke of the paintbrush held tightly in a talented hand as it swirls and dances over the planes of her skin.

She doesn’t know how long she lies there, eyes closed, enjoying the tranquillity of the weak winter sun beating against her back through the glass and the faint sound of the roiling waves crashing into the beach below, and the feeling of Kara painting her skin in bright, golden colours.

She can tell when Kara’s done because there’s a clink as she sets her brush down, and then her weight is gone, and Cat flickers her eyes open to find Kara wiping her hands on a towel before reaching for Cat’s phone, retreating to the foot of the bed to take a picture before handing the phone over to her, and Cat’s breath catches at the image before her.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmurs, because oh, it might be one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen. Her lower back is the brilliant blue of the ocean, white-tipped waves recreated in perfect definition, and in the centre of her shoulder blades sits the rising sun, bold and magnificent, casting its golden rays down on the water below, the sky a gorgeous mix of red and yellow hues. “You’re incredible.” Kara’s cheeks colour at the praise as she ducks her head, though there’s a pleased smile on her mouth. “I don’t want to wash it off.”

“You’re gonna have to, unless you don’t want to move for another couple of hours. It’ll take a while to dry, and even when it does, I don’t recommend wearing clothes in-case you ruin them.”

“Was this whole thing just a ploy to keep me naked?” She teases, and Kara grins, settling onto her knees beside the bed and stretching out a hand to run her fingers through Cat’s hair.

“Not entirely, but it was a big motivator. I’m a huge, _huge_ fan of you never wearing clothes ever again.” She runs her eyes across Cat’s body as if to illustrate her point, gaze lingering at the sides of Cat’s breasts and the curve of her ass.

“I think they’d probably frown upon that, at the office.”

“Productivity would be at an all-time low because no-one would be able to keep their eyes off you,” Kara agrees.

“And that would just be unacceptable,” Cat finishes, and Kara’s lips curl into a soft smile. She stretches her arms over her head and pushes herself upright, tired of lounging around – she’d never been very good at it, even when she was younger. The only time she’d ever been able to truly sleep in had been the days were she was too hungover to drag herself out of bed.

She catches a glimpse of her back in the mirror above her vanity and is loathe to wash it away, wants to leave it on her skin for a little longer, so she riffles for one of the old, worn sweatshirts she has in one of her drawers, one that she doesn’t care about being streaked with paint, and couples it with loose sweatpants that sit low on her hips.

Kara eyes the strip of skin that her clothes leave bare with hungry eyes, backs Cat against her vanity and reaches out to run her thumbs across protruding hipbones, marked with thin red lines, the imprint from Kara’s nails as she’d gripped Cat’s hips last night, and the faint purple bite mark that’s half-hidden by her pants.

Kara’s only wearing underwear and a tank top, and Cat runs eager hands over her exposed skin, and she could spend a lifetime mapping out the contours of Kara’s body, finding all the spots that make her knees weak and her breaths turn heavy, and knows she’d never get bored.

“Come for a walk with me?” She asks, because the sun is shining and the sky is a brilliant blue, and one of her favourite things to do here is traipse across the cliffs, to hear the waves crashing into the rocks below, to take a minute to stop and admire the beauty of it, so different to the concrete jungle that is her main home.

“Okay.” Kara kisses her before moving away, and Cat slips into the bathroom whilst Kara tugs on some clothes, and when she strides back into the bedroom she leads Kara out onto her balcony and down the winding staircase onto the deck below.

Kara tangles their fingers together as they walk, Cat guiding her along the well-worn path that takes them up onto the cliffs that the house is nestled into, and Kara pauses when they reach the top, taking a step towards the edge – Cat tightens her hold on Kara’s hand, keeping her close, and she grins as she turns to face her.

“Scared of heights?”

“I’m not scared of anything,” Cat claims, chin lifted in defiance of Kara’s teasing tone, though it’s a blatant lie, because so many things terrify her – including the woman standing in-front of her with a winning smile, like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

Not a single person has ever managed to disarm her as completely and thoroughly as Kara has managed so quickly and effortlessly, and she’s never needed someone in quite the same way she needs her, never felt like she could _love_ someone the way she knows she’ll love Kara, with her whole body and soul, deeper than anything she’s ever felt before, save for Carter.

She thinks her love for Kara will consume her whole, knows that Kara can ruin her far more effectively than any of her corporate competition, but somewhere along the way it had become worth the risk, because Cat wouldn’t take back the way Kara looks at her in moments like this, open and free and so endlessly, unimaginably beautiful, for the world.

“But,” Cat adds, when Kara tries to tug her closer and fails, Cat digging her heels in and refusing to move an inch, thankful that all those Pilates classes are paying off, “I don’t particularly want a strong gust of wind sending me tumbling over the edge, either.”

“So, you _are_ scared,” Kara teases with a grin, and Cat makes a face – that quickly turns into a frown when Kara takes another step towards the edge, letting go of Cat’s hand.

“Please be careful,” she murmurs as Kara turns to survey the scene before her.

“I will,” Kara promises, but Cat still doesn’t breathe properly until Kara is safely back beside her once more, winding her arms around Cat’s waist and pulling her into her side, resting her chin on the top of Cat’s head and looking out over the ocean. “I could spend hours out here, painting this view.”

“You can,” Cat tells her, sliding her own arms around Kara’s back and letting her eyes flutter closed as Kara’s lips press against her temple. “You can come down here whenever you want. If you ever need to get out of the city for a while, clear your head and lose yourself in the quiet… just let me know.” She does that, sometimes – not so much anymore, but when Carter was still a child and she was having a particularly trying week, sometimes she’d escape to her beach house and ignore the rest of life’s responsibilities in favour of playing in the sand with her son, his sunny smiles never failing to soothe her. “You’re always welcome here.”

“Really?”

“Of course. You can even bring Carter along with you, if you want. He likes it out here, likes the quiet.” It’s the main reason they spend so much of the summer out here – the commute is a killer when she doesn’t finish until late on the Friday and has to be back early on the Monday, and it’s an inconvenience if she ever needs to nip back into the office over the weekend like she’s often prone to do, but it’s worth it for the way he relaxes out here away from the busy city. “You’d have to acquire a car for the occasion, though. He’s not allowed near that bike of yours.”

“Yes ma’am,” Kara teases, and Cat pokes her playfully in the side. “And thank you.” There’s something else Kara wants to say, Cat can tell from the restless way she drums her fingertips against Cat’s skin, but she doesn’t say anything, waits for Kara to bring it up on her own. “You… you really trust me with Carter like that?”

Cat’s eyes flutter open and she shifts, glancing up at Kara to find her looking back with curiosity written across her face.

“Of course I do,” she murmurs, because how can Kara think anything less? “It’s been… three months since you started your lessons with him? And in all that time you’ve proven that you’re more than trustworthy around him, and he adores you.”

“I… I care about him too,” Kara admits quietly, ducking her head like she’s worried about saying too much. “A lot.”  

“And I love that about you,” Cat replies, and Kara looks at her sharply, gaze so intense that it takes Cat’s breath away. “I love that he matters so much to you. I love that you make such an effort with him, and I know that he does, too. No-one’s ever done that for him before. And it’s… it’s always been so important to me, that anyone I dated get along with him and I… I can’t quite believe that I’ve managed to find you.” She raises a hand to Kara’s cheek, her fingers trembling as they brush against her skin, cradling her jaw gently in the palm of her hand. “I can’t believe that you’re so wonderful with him, as well as to me.”

“It’s easy,” Kara tells her, voice quiet, her eyes shining with unshed tears, affected by Cat’s words. “He makes it easy, and you… god, it was so easy to fall for you. I was done for the second I laid eyes on you.”

“I think I was, too.” Kara’s smile is soft, and Cat closes her eyes as she leans down for a kiss, slow and deep and _perfect_ , the sun beaming down on them and the low roar of the ocean echoing in their ears, and Cat tilts her head and parts her lips for Kara’s oh-so-talented tongue and clutches the back of her neck to hold her close, feeling like she’s on-top of the world.


	16. Chapter 16

“So,” Kara hears the drawl of her sister’s voice a moment before she sees her, Alex’s footsteps heavy as she traipses her way across Kara’s gallery-front and into the studio at the rear, an easy smile on her face when she appears in the doorway, “how was your romantic getaway?”

“It was not a romantic getaway,” Kara replies with a roll of her eyes, finishing up the part of the piece in-front of her that she’d been working on, a slash of white along the exterior of a single lonely house in a field, and sets her brush down, stretching her arms over her head and wincing when her joints crack, having been sat in the same position for too long.

“When your girlfriend invites you to spend the weekend with her in her beach house, it’s a romantic getaway,” Alex tells her, settling into the armchair that Kara had set up in one corner for instances such as this – her sister would often drop by on her way home from work, sometimes with takeout and sometimes not, would sit and chatter happily while Kara worked, both of them catching the other up on their day.

“It was… amazing,” Kara tells her, with a secret little smile that has Alex grimacing as she imagines just what it means. Not that Kara is going to tell her, because she and Cat had spent the majority of the weekend wrapped up in bed together, and she doesn’t need to scar her sister with the imagery.

“Yeah? Things are still going well between you two, then?”

“Mhm.” Kara rises from her chair to cross to the mini-fridge in one corner, snatches a beer and offers another to Alex, who shakes her head. “You never turn down beer, what’s wrong with you?”

“We’re talking about you and Cat,” Alex waves her off as Kara twists of the cap, and she frowns at her sister as she lifts the beer to her lips. “I… I have a date,” she admits under Kara’s careful scrutiny, and Kara lets out a gasp, immediately bounding back over to Alex with a squeal of delight. “And this,” she continues with a frown, waving towards Kara and her very obvious excitement, “is why I didn’t want to tell you. I knew you’d get all… _crazy_.”

“Oh, come on! I told you about Cat.”

“Because you wouldn’t shut _up_ about Cat,” Alex points out, sighing when Kara pouts. “Okay, maybe that was a little mean. I’m just nervous, it’s been awhile.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kara teases, and Alex kicks her in the shin hard enough to make her wince. “Is this the girl from work that you’ve been talking about? What was her name…? Susan?”

“That would be the one,” Alex murmurs, looking down at her hands. “We went out for drinks last week and I got enough liquid courage in me to ask her out and now I need you to give me a pep talk because I don’t know if I have _enough_ courage to leave here again now that I’ve sat down.”

“Okay, pep talks I can do.” Kara sets down her beer and kneels on the floor, forcing Alex to meet her gaze. “You don’t need to be nervous about this, Alex. She said yes, she must like you. And you’re… you’re amazing, and she’s gonna see that. You’re gonna blow her away.”

Alex’s last breakup had been even worse than Kara’s, and in the eighteen months since she hasn’t shown an interest in anyone beyond letting them stay the night, and Kara’s overjoyed that she’s finally daring to put herself back out there again.

“Yeah?”

“Hell yeah,” Kara says decisively, curling her hand around the back of Alex’s and squeezing. “Where are you taking her?”

“She’s taking me,” Alex admits, and Kara’s surprise must show on her face – Alex is a planner, and Kara doesn’t remember the last first date she went on that wasn’t on her terms – because she lets out a quiet chuckle.

“You must like her a lot.”

“I do.”

“Then you don’t have anything to worry about,” Kara murmurs, squeezing her hands again. “Oh my god, you should totally invite her to Thanksgiving!”

“Uh, _no_. There is no way in hell I’m subjecting her to both you _and_ Mom at the same time.” Kara pouts, because she isn’t _that_ bad, but Alex just shakes her head. “No way in _hell_. Especially after we’ve only been on one date. I’ll scare her away for good.”

“ _Or_ it’ll be an awesome opportunity to meet the family seeing as Cat and Carter will be there, too. It’ll take some of the pressure off.”

“Nope,” Alex replies with a quick shake of her head. “And you and Cat are different, you’ve been together longer.”

“You and Susan have known each other longer – it’s only been six weeks.”

“Seriously?” Alex looks surprised, and Kara nods. “Feels like longer.” Kara thinks so, too, because she can scarcely remember what a life without Cat had looked like, despite it being such a short amount of time, and it’s terrifying, really, that it’s flown by so fast, that Cat is already so ingrained her life, to the extent where she doesn’t want to know what it would be like without her, but… it’s hard to feel that way, when this thing with Cat just feels so _right_. “You guys are pretty serious, though. What’s the joke, about the lesbians and the U-Haul?”

“Well, first of all, we’re both bisexual,” Kara counters, “and second of all – shut up.” Alex’s grin is wide, and Kara can see some of the tension easing from her shoulders. “We kinda have to be serious with a kid in the mix, anyway.” Carter’s been spending some evenings here whilst they’d worked on their side project, the comic strip for the Trib that’s set to print this week.

She’s nervous about it, because she has no idea if it’s even a good idea – has no idea what it takes to sell copies of a newspaper, let alone one that was flailing in the digital economy, but it was fun, and Carter lit up whenever they talked about it, and it had been a good way for the two of them to spend some more time together and get to know one another a little better.

She’s always known that Carter was a brilliant kid, but she’s only gotten to see that brain of his spark to life recently, and he’d come up with the entire backstory and history of their character, and the powers to boot.

Cat had come up with the name – Kara had rolled her eyes when she’d dubbed her ‘Supergirl’ when she’d seen an early stage doodle of the female caped crusader, but the name had just sort of… stuck, and it had made Cat’s lips twitch into a smile when she’d seen the finalised version of their first story and seen her name emblazoned across the top of the page.

“True,” Alex concedes, smiling at the mention of Carter. Kara knows the two of them have been spending time together, too, working on his science fair project, and she knows that Alex is just as smitten with him as Kara has become, is delighted to welcome both him and Cat into their little family of misfits, and Kara couldn’t be happier about how easily they’re all getting along.

She’s just terrified that that might change when Eliza comes to town tomorrow.

And it’s not that Eliza’s been particularly difficult in the past – she had accepted both of her daughters with open arms when they’d told her they were interested in women, Kara many years later than Alex (Alex had always known she was gay, but Kara hadn’t discovered she swung both ways until she fell head over heels for her very straight best friend in her senior year of high school, and Alex had been there to pick up the pieces when Kara’s heart had been broken into smithereens), and had always, after a slight interrogation, welcomed any of their significant others with open arms, too.

Kara’s only ever brought two people home to meet her foster mother, only ever had two serious relationships in her relatively short time on this earth but this thing with Cat… it feels like _more_ , somehow. It feels like something she never wants to end, something deeper and more potent than anything she’s ever felt before – than anything she ever wants to feel again – and it’s _important_ to get Eliza on board, not just for Kara but for Cat as well.

Because Kara has a feeling that if Eliza openly disapproves, then Cat’s going to start listening to those doubts all over again, the ones that don’t seem to be present so much anymore, not when Kara is always there to sweep them away with an idle brush of her fingertips or a gentle kiss.

“You worried? About Mom?” Alex asks, knowing Kara well enough to be able to see the anxiety written across her face.

“Terrified,” she admits, shifting so that she’s sat cross-legged on the floor in-front of Alex when her knees protest at staying crouched for so long.

“You don’t need to be,” Alex says, sounding much more certain than Kara feels.

“I don’t know…” She trails off, reaching for her beer bottle and taking a swig, playing nervously with the paper labelling as she holds it carefully in her hands. “Eliza didn’t sound massively happy on the phone when she called me about Cat.”

“Probably because the only reason she knew you were dating someone was because she saw you making out with them on the front page of a tabloid.” Kara winces at the memory, still cursing herself for not _thinking_ of that – but Eliza didn’t listen to idle gossip, and she’d had no idea that pictures of her and Cat would ever make it back to Midvale.

“I admit I probably should have thought that one through a little more.”

“You think? She called me too, you know.” Kara looks up sharply, because she hasn’t heard this story before. “Before she called you. She wanted to know how serious it was. Well – after she’d yelled at me for letting it happen in the first place.” Alex rolls her eyes, and Kara presses her lips together to hide her smile.

Eliza had always been fiercely protective of Kara, had always encouraged Alex to look out for her – she thinks that might have been one of the reasons why Alex had resented her so much, in the beginning. She’d gone from being an only child, the golden child, to losing her parents’ attention to someone new, and then she’d been chastised for not making enough of an effort with Kara, and Kara can still hear the screaming matches between Alex and her mother, ringing in her ears long after doors had slammed behind them.

It had gotten better, as she and Alex had become friends, but Eliza still expected Alex to look out for her sister, and whenever Kara did something wrong, or made a mistake, Alex was almost always looked to first, as though she should have done something to prevent it happening in the first place.

“Still doesn’t understand that I can make my own decisions?”

“Apparently not,” Alex sighs. “But, anyway – she wanted to know about the two of you, whether you needed an intervention because Cat Grant had got her claws in you.” Kara huffs out a laugh, because if anything, it was the other way around – she was the one who had pursued Cat, after all. She was the one who had wanted more, who had _pushed_ for more, and Cat had been the one determined to stay away.

“Had she been talking to Lois?” Even though Eliza and Jeremiah had been Kara’s foster parents, they were close with her cousin, too. He’d almost been the one to get custody of her, fresh out of college and with no idea how to handle a thirteen year old suffering from the same crushing loss as he himself was, but the Danvers’ had stepped in, and Clark had always kept a close eye on her since.

It meant that Eliza often considered him a part of her family, and not just Kara’s, and they’d always spent Christmas together. When Lois had come into Clark’s life, she was invited, too, estranged from her father and on terrible terms with her sister, and Kara knows that Lois and Eliza are close, more friends than mother-and-daughterly.

“I don’t know,” Alex shrugs, “maybe.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that she shouldn’t be so judgemental.” Kara’s lips curl into a smile, because she can imagine that Eliza didn’t like hearing _that_ very much – and judging from the small grimace on Alex’s face, she was right. “And that Cat made you happier than I’ve ever seen, so she should try and be supportive, at least until she met Cat herself. So it’s probably my bad that she invited Cat over for Thanksgiving, sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’m kind of… I’m kind of glad that she’s coming, that we’ll all be together, you know? And at least Carter will be there, too. Eliza will love him.” She’s already told Carter, that whenever there’s an awkward silence, he could jump in with a science question for either Alex or Eliza to keep things along. “And as for Cat… I know she doesn’t approve of the age thing.” She could _hear_ it in Eliza’s strained voice, even as she’d been trying not to make a snap judgement. “And maybe I don’t really blame her, cause yeah, it’s a pretty big difference, but… I don’t care. And I hope after a while Eliza doesn’t either.”

“She won’t.” Kara shakes her head, because she doesn’t know how Alex can be so _sure_. “She’ll take one look at you and Cat in the same room and she’ll realise how crazy you are about each other, and ten minutes alone with Cat, with Cat talking about you with that ridiculous little glint she gets in her eye whenever she looks at you? She’ll be on-board. Trust me.”

“If you say so…”

“I _do_.” Alex reaches for Kara’s hands, pulls her upright and then wraps her in a tight hug. “I admit that I had some reservations about you and Cat, in the beginning,” Alex says when she releases Kara, though she doesn’t step away, curls her hands around Kara’s shoulders and squeezes. “I thought… well, I thought she was who the media portrayed her as. The ice queen. I thought you just had a little power crush on your hot neighbour and you were gonna get your heart broken when she got bored of flirting with you… but I was wrong.”

Alex’s eyes are uncharacteristically serious as they regard her, and she looks so much older and wiser than her twenty-seven years, and Kara’s heart floods with warmth at her words, and the raw honesty colouring each and every single one.

“And you know I don’t often admit to being wrong so you should listen carefully.” Kara’s lips twitch, but Alex’s expression remains stoic. “I’m glad I _was_ proven wrong, though. I’m glad that you’ve found someone like Cat, someone who makes you light up, someone you can be yourself around, someone who gets that sometimes you need to disappear to your studio slash cave for three days without coming up for air and won’t get mad about it. I’m glad that you’ve found someone to love who’s as amazing as Cat Grant is for you. And maybe you’re not there yet,” Alex adds, seeing Kara’s eyes widen at the mention of the ‘l’ word, “although I think you are, because you get that stupid, dopey and sickeningly sweet look on your face whenever you think about her, but you will be, one day. I know it’s still early and you’re only a few weeks in, but… I’ve never seen you like this before, and I think this could last, and Mom’s gonna see that, too. And she’s gonna love Cat, when she sees how much she cares about you.”

Kara’s eyes sting with tears at Alex’s heartfelt words, and she flings her arms around her sister’s neck and buries her face in her shoulder to stop them from falling, Alex hugging her tightly back with her arms around Kara’s waist.

She jumps when she hears the light knock of knuckles on glass coming from the gallery, leans away from Alex and frowns as she hastily wipes away any stray tears that she’s let fall, because it’s late, and the place had closed hours ago.

But she goes to investigate, smiling when she recognises the blonde leaning against the glass, huddled in her designer coat, purse draped over her arm as she squints down at the phone in her hand.

“What are you doing here?” She asks as she pushes the door open and ushers Cat inside, grimacing when she takes Cat’s hand and feels how cold her skin is to the touch. “Did you walk here?”

“Only a couple of blocks,” she murmurs, sliding her phone back into her purse as she lets Kara tug her close, stepping into the warm circle of her arms. “I had a business meeting downtown, but it got cut short. So I thought I’d come by, see if you were still here. You haven’t actually given me a tour of the place, you know.”

“There’s not much to see,” Kara shrugs. “There’s the gallery space,” she gestures around them with one hand, and Cat rolls her eyes fondly. “And there’s the studio,” she waves over her shoulder, “and that’s about it.”

“Still.” Cat steps away to wander over towards some of her pieces, the ones that hadn’t sold at the gallery opening, trailing her fingertips over the white walls as she goes. “I like to see where you’re spending your time when you’re not at home. You’ve been to my office, I want to see yours.”

“I know,” Kara shrugs as Cat squints up at one of her newer paintings, one that she hasn’t seen before – it’s the view from her balcony, the one that Kara had hastily sketched that night in Cat’s office (her view of the city before she’d closed her eyes and surrendered to the feeling of Cat’s mouth on her skin), blown up and painted in bright, metallic colours, her concrete jungle brought to life. “It’s not _much_ of an office, though.”

“It’s enough.” Cat turns to glance at Kara over her shoulder, her eyes dark, and Kara wonders if she’s remembering that night on the balcony, too, swallows thickly at the thought. “I like this one.”

“I bet you do.” Cat’s lips curve into a wicked smirk, and Kara’s mouth goes dry.

“Is it for sale?”

“It will be, at my next show.”

“Can I buy it before then?”

“You want it?” Kara’s surprised, because Cat already has one of her pieces hanging in her apartment, and she hadn’t expected her to want another. “Cause I can paint you a smaller one.”

“I want that one.” Cat turns, stalks towards her on stilettos that click ominously across the hardwood floors, and pushes Kara back against a wall with a hand against her chest. “It’s my view, so it should be mine. And,” Cat continues, pinning Kara in place with just her body and lowering her voice and Kara is grateful because she’s pretty sure she doesn’t want Alex overhearing whatever Cat’s going to say next, “I don’t want anyone else seeing this _particular_ view.” She brushes their lips together, just barely, and a whimper gets caught in the back of Kara’s throat. “When you were painting it, did you imagine me on my knees in-front of you?”

“I - ”

“Ooookay, this seems like a really good point for me to leave.” Alex’s voice cuts through the room and acts like a cold bucket of water, Cat springing back from her as if she’s been burned, and Kara’s cheeks flame red as she turns towards her sister, sheepish expression on her face.

“Alex, I’m sorry,” Cat murmurs, smoothing her hands over her hips and clearing her throat, the first sign of awkwardness Kara has ever seen Cat Grant exhibit. “Kara failed to mention that you were here.”

“Yeah, well that doesn’t surprise me, seeing as I’m pretty sure whenever you’re around she forgets her own name.” There’s a smirk on Alex’s mouth and Kara groans as Cat’s lips curl upwards in a pleased smile. “I do need to get going, though.”

“Hey,” Kara catches up to Alex before she leaves, wrapping a hand around her wrist to stop her before she slips out the door. “You’ll call me later? Or tomorrow? To let me know how it goes?”

“I will,” she promises, and Kara grins, tugging Alex in for one last hug.

“It’ll be fine, please don’t worry about it too much.” Alex squeezes her hard before letting her go, waving to Cat before turning and striding through the door, zipping up her leather jacket as she steps onto the street outside.

“Is she okay?” Cat asks, reclining back against the nearest wall and looking like a goddamn model, like she should be hung up like one of Kara’s paintings, a greater masterpiece than any other she’ll ever display.

“She has a date,” Kara explains, making her way over to her girlfriend and allowing Cat to draw her close, so that she’s the one pressing _Cat_ against the wall this time. “And she’s nervous about it. But she’ll be fine. I think.” Kara frowns over her shoulder, towards where her sister had disappeared. “She doesn’t date a lot. I think she’s worried she’s forgotten how.”

“Considering how well she helped you design our first date, I think she’s got it covered.” Kara hums her agreement, because her first time out with Cat had gone perfectly. She leans down to brush their lips together properly, because it feels like a lifetime since they last met – even though it had been less than twenty four hours since Kara had left Cat’s apartment, bidding her and Carter goodnight after he’d returned from his weekend with his father.

They kiss lazily for a few moments, both aware of the fact that the dim lighting and the glass walls make them extremely visible to anyone who happens to walk by, though Kara’s breathing is still laboured when she parts their lips, resting her forehead against Cat’s as she swipes a thumb across her cheek.

“I did have an ulterior motive for dropping by here on my way home,” Cat admits, and Kara raises an intrigued (and suggestive – Cat’s ulterior motives are almost always of the sexy variety, and those are definitely Kara’s favourites) eyebrow. “Would you still like to see my first studio? Where I started out? It’s only two blocks over, and I have the key.”

“I’d love that,” Kara murmurs, because the more time she spends with Cat the more she amazes her, the more Kara wants to _know_ about her, and being able to see where Cat began to build her empire isn’t something she wants to miss out on. “But do you not need to get back to Carter?”

“We’ll be back before his bedtime,” Cat assures her. “There’s not an awful lot to see – it’s mostly just a dusty old room, but for some reason you seem to be interested in it.”

“Because I’m interested in _you_ ,” Kara tells her, and Cat looks up at her with eyes that seem to stare straight through to her soul. “In how you got to where you are today, and what better way than to go back to where it all started?”

“Most people are only interested in the future,” Cat murmurs quietly, her hands warm on the small of Kara’s back. “They don’t care about the past.”

“They should,” Kara shrugs, “because it’s the past that shapes us. It’s the past that makes us who we are. Even if we can’t change it.” She knows she sounds a little wistful, and Cat’s eyes flash with sympathy before she leans up to press a gentle kiss against her lips.

“Have you eaten? I know a great Chinese place we can stop by on the way.”

“You know I’m always down for good takeout food.”

“Unfortunately,” Cat murmurs, with a playful wrinkle of her nose. “You know, you’re not going to have that swimsuit model body of yours forever if you keep stuffing it with whatever food you can find.”

“I gotta take advantage of my metabolism while it lasts,” Kara teases, and Cat merely gives a wry shake of her head. “I’ll just put my stuff away, and then we can head out.” She gives Cat one last peck before slipping out of her arms and back into her studio, Cat meandering along behind her, taking everything in with those inquisitive eyes.

She puts away the supplies she’d been using earlier, feeling watchful eyes on her back, and sure enough, when she turns, Cat is leaning against the doorframe, taking in Kara’s half-finished pieces with interest.

“See something you like?” She asks, because usually she hates people seeing her work before it’s done, unless it’s her sister or more recently Carter, but with Cat she feels brave enough to share them.

“Yes, actually, but I believe she’s taken.” Cat’s eyes twinkle and Kara huffs out a laugh at the terrible joke before she reaches for her bag, switching off the light in the room as she joins Cat in the doorway, Cat taking her hand as they head out onto the street, Kara locking up behind them.

It’s a cool but clear night, the sky without a cloud in sight, no wind to chill them further, and Cat leads her along streets illuminated only by streetlights and the occasional flash of headlights from a passing car, her hand warm in Kara’s and her voice quiet in the air between them as she fills Kara in on her workday.

They stop to get takeout on the way, and when Cat orders in flawless Chinese Kara blinks at her, wide-eyed and amazed, and when Cat turns back to face she quirks a questioning eyebrow at the look on Kara’s face.

“What?”

“You speak Chinese?”

“I speak a lot of languages,” Cat replies with a little smile. “French, Spanish, Italian… some German. Some from school, some from travelling. I backpacked my way across Europe the summer before college.” Kara can imagine her perfectly – fresh-faced and wide-eyed, ready to start her first big adventure, and the thought makes her smile.

“I’ve never been out of the country,” Kara admits, and Cat looks appalled.

“We’ll have to rectify that,” Cat murmurs, stepping forward to take their food when their order is called, holding the plastic bag in one hand and Kara’s in her other. “I’ll whisk you away the next time I can bear to be out of the office for longer than a day.”

“Yeah? Where to?”

“Mm, Paris, maybe. Carter loves it there. He could drag you around the Louvre and I could spend the day relaxing by the pool.”

“Do you even know _how_ to relax?” Kara teases, because she knows it’s not an activity that Cat is great at, considering the fact that she’s always, always in motion. Cat just chuckles quietly, leading Kara around the corner to a small, non-descript building with several satellite dishes built onto the roof.

“Ah, here we are. Where it all began.” She drops Kara’s hand to unlock the door, pushing it open and fumbling for the switch on the wall, bathing the room within in a soft glow after a moment or two of flickering, the wires protesting at the lack of use.

Most of the furniture is covered by thick white sheets to protect it from dust, and Kara stands back and takes the room in as Cat busies herself with tugging them off. There are two rooms, separated by a thin wall of glass, and Kara looks into the studio beyond and remembers flashes of the Cat Grant show flicker through her mind from her childhood.

Even then, Cat had still had that razor-sharp tongue and quick wit, could draw a story out of her guests as effortlessly as she could breathe, and she’d been absolutely captivating. Her drive to get to the root of the matter, to bring out the truth – the same drive that had made her such an excellent journalist, and that had gotten her this far – had been wonderful to watch, and Kara doesn’t think that anyone, even as Cat was just starting out, could have doubted that one day she would rule the city.

There’s a bookstand with a collection of old tapes, various awards lying atop it, and Kara runs a single fingertip along the spines of the tapes, reading the names there with interest, and she starts when there’s a crackle of static behind her, whirls around to find Cat looking at her sheepishly.

“Sorry, I was just wondering if any of this stuff still worked. It’s been awhile since I was last in here.” She’s standing in-front of several screens, flickering with life, and Kara crosses back over to where Cat stands and eyes all the buttons in-front of her with curious eyes.

“Show me how it works?” She asks, because she has no idea what any of this stuff does, and Cat’s eyes light up at her interest, a spark of fire glittering green, and Kara listens with rapt attention as Cat leads her around the room.

She could spend a lifetime with Cat like this – exuberant as she talks about what she loves, gesturing more and more wildly with her hands, and Kara could listen to her talk for hours on end, almost wants to pout when Cat finishes her tour behind the glass wall of the studio, running a reverent hand over the desk that she’d used to sit behind.

They eat their Chinese food on that desk, and Kara keeps glancing at Cat and imagining what she must have looked like, primed and ready for the cameras, projecting an air of confidence fierce enough to strike terror into the heart of her guests whenever she turned on them with her sharp eyes and even sharper words.

“Do you miss it?” Kara asks, after she’s just stuffed down the sixth and final potsticker, setting down her chopsticks and leaning back in her chair with a satisfied sigh as she watches Cat finish off her noodles. “Having your own show?” She clarifies, when Cat just glances at her curiously. “I can see how much you loved it just from spending five minutes in this place with you.”

“Yes and no,” Cat murmurs, beginning to pack away their empty boxes. “Life was certainly a lot less hectic when I only had this and the Trib to worry about, and it was _different_ to reporting and I enjoyed myself but… I like where I am now. Running CatCo brings me hell but it’s _mine_ and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It means far too much for me, and it takes up far too much of my time to have any spare to eviscerate celebrities and politicians live on air.”

“You get to do it with words, instead.”

“Almost as satisfying,” Cat agrees, lips quirking into a smile that falters slightly when she glances at her watch. “I should probably think about getting back to Carter, I didn’t realise how late it had gotten.”

Kara blinks in surprise when she checks her phone and realises that they’ve been almost two hours, because it hasn’t _felt_ like that long. Cat has a habit of making her lose track of time completely, to lose focus of anything and everything in the outside world, to _reduce_ her whole world to nothing but Cat herself, and it’s something that Kara doesn’t think she ever wants to change.

“My bike’s at my studio,” Kara murmurs, watching Cat’s eyes light up in delight and chuckling quietly, “if you want a ride home.”

Cat’s answer is a kiss that leaves her breathless.

x-x-x

“How was your date?” Kara asks her sister the next morning, finding Alex leaning with one foot propped up against the side of the grocery store’s brick wall, arms folded across her chest, and she rolls her eyes at her sister’s question and the enthusiasm in her eyes.

“Have you got the list?” Alex says instead of answering her, pushing herself away from the wall and holding out a hand. Kara pouts as she slaps a piece of paper into her palm – it’s a very detailed list of the all of the things they need for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, which she’d very hastily written down during a conversation with Eliza last night.

Cat had been watching over her shoulder, had stolen the pen as Kara was saying her goodbyes and scrawled down a few more things at the bottom, and Kara had called Alex to help her make sure she gets everything on the list because she doesn’t want to mess tomorrow up.

“Come on, Alex,” Kara pleads as Alex steers Kara into the store with a hand on her elbow. Alex’s face gives nothing away, though her lips twitch at Kara’s pestering. “How was it?”

“It was great, okay?” Kara’s lips stretch into a wide, excited smile, and Alex gives a fond roll of her eyes. “She took me to that tapas place I’ve been wanting to go to for a while and then we went to a club and then she came back to my place, and _that_ is the information you’re getting out of me.”

“Are you going to see her again?”

“Saturday night,” Alex offers, and Kara’s grin is wide. “And no, you can’t meet her yet.” She pouts, and Alex just levels her with her best glare. “I’m serious, Kara. I didn’t push you about Cat.”

“Uh, yes you did. But _fine_ ,” she agrees, only because it’s been so long since Alex has even _been_ on a second date. “Help me find all that stuff,” she waves towards the list that Alex holds tightly in one hand. “Because I don’t know where half of it lives.”

“Because you live off of pot stickers and pizza,” Alex mutters as she begins to wander down the aisles. “Have you even used your stove yet? Do you know if it works?”

“Hey, I’m not _that_ bad.” Alex just smirks, and Kara shoulder checks her sister when Alex pauses to grab some potatoes. “I can cook some stuff. And Cat’s teaching me.” Cat is an amazing cook, a fact that she had kept quiet for quite some time. The first time she’d made Kara dinner, Kara trusted only to chop vegetables and stir pots and pans, Kara had died and gone to food heaven, because it was one of the best meals she’d ever had in her life – and she’d made sure to show Cat just _how_ appreciative she was once Carter had gone to bed after a game of Settlers of Catan.

Cat’s been teaching her a few small things ever since, just enough for Kara to ‘fend for herself’, in Cat’s words, and Kara’s not going to complain when it means she gets to spend more time with her girlfriend _and_ eat amazing food at the same time.

“I bet she is,” Alex mutters under her breath, snickering, and Kara shoves her in the back as she walks ahead, smirking when Alex nearly trips over her own feet.

“Serves you right,” she tells her, when Alex turns to throw her a glare over her shoulder, and she just makes a face, dodging Kara’s outstretched hand as she makes to push her along.

“I take it you’re not being trusted in the kitchen tomorrow, though?”

“God no,” Kara replies with a shudder, because that, on-top of panicking over whether Eliza and Cat will get along, is a level of stress that isn’t sure she’d be able to survive. “I’m staying out of the way, with Carter. I’m sacrificing you if they need any help.”

“Oh, gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Kara beams, and Alex rolls her eyes. “We should probably hurry up,” she continues as she glances at her phone and sees the time. “Eliza will be here soon.” She’s staying in Kara’s guestroom, seeing as she’s the one hosting Thanksgiving thanks to her shiny new apartment, and the last thing she wants is to keep Eliza waiting on the curb for them to get home.

“Okay.” Alex whizzes around the rest of the store, piling groceries into the cart at impressive speed, and about four times faster than Kara would have been alone. They manage to get back to Kara’s place and pack everything away before she gets a phone call, Eliza’s warm voice in her ear, and Kara grins, calling down to security to let her in.

She’s scooped into a fierce hug the second that Eliza’s in the door, and she’s released only to be pulled into a second along with Alex a moment later. “My girls,” Eliza murmurs with one arm around Kara’s back and the other around Alex’s, “it’s so good to see you.” She steps back only to give the both of them a once-over with a critical eye, searching for any changes since the last time they’d seen her. “I know you’re busy, but you need to remember your lonely mother more often, the both of you. It’s been too long since you came to visit.”

“We’re coming for Christmas,” Kara tells her, though there’s a look on Eliza’s face like maybe that’s not enough and she feels a flash of guilt, because it _has_ been a while since she’s made it back to Midvale, and she should probably make more of an effort once she’s gotten things settled down here. “And there’s nothing stopping you from coming here! We’re both in the same city now, and you can have your own room here.” Eliza’s lips twitch, and Kara reaches for the bag slung over her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll show you, it has a great view.”

Alex lingers in the living room while Kara leads Eliza down the hall, and she hears her foster mother let out a quiet breath when she steps into the guest room and sees National City spread out before them.

“Wow,” she murmurs as Kara sets her bag down in the middle of the freshly-made bed. “This _is_ pretty impressive, Kara.” Kara comes to stand beside her by the window, turns when she sees Eliza focusing on her rather than the view. “I can see why you chose this place.” She’d been torn over apartment buildings for months, had originally been looking for one in the same building as Alex’s, or at least one nearby, but when her realtor had shown her this apartment on a whim, she’d fallen in love and put the deposit down two days later, wincing as she’d looked at her bank account for the next few weeks.

It had all been worth it, though, because she doesn’t know if she ever would have met Cat otherwise, and the thought is a terrifying one.

She wonders if it was fate, that had made this apartment come onto the market the exact same time she was looking, fate that had ensured that Cat wasn’t in the office that fateful Saturday that they’d met, fate that had her tripping and falling into Kara’s waiting arms, and that had kick-started the greatest thing that had maybe ever happened to her.

“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” she agrees, waiting patiently for whatever else Eliza wants to say – she can see it there, swirling in blue eyes.

“You must get so much work done, painting under the light from the stars. Your favourite place to paint was always out on the deck. Whenever I couldn’t find you in your room I knew that’s where you’d be.”

Kara smiles softly, remembering the feeling of the sun beating down upon her on those long summers she’d spent perched in-front of the easel Eliza had gotten her for her fourteenth birthday, when she’d realised that it wasn’t just a hobby for Kara, it was a coping mechanism, too.

Eliza’s whole family was made up of scientists, and she’d married one, too, Alex following in both of her parents’ footsteps. Kara had been worried when she’d approached Eliza about college, about choosing art, worried that she wouldn’t understand, but Eliza had just chuckled and pulled her into a hug and told her that she’d support her no matter what, and that she always had to follow her heart.

Kara had cried because after she’d lost her parents, she’d never dreamed of someone as wonderful as Eliza finding her and taking her in, never imagined that she’d be lucky enough to find herself a foster mother just as loving as the one she’d lost, who had accepted Kara as her own without question, and had always treated her like she was one of her own.

Kara is more grateful to Eliza, and to Alex, than she will ever, ever be able to put into words.

“I’m so proud of you, you know that, right?” Eliza continues, her voice tight, and Kara realises that she’s blinking back tears. “For everything you’ve managed to make of yourself. For never giving up. For following your dreams, always. I’m so proud, and I know your parents would be, too.”

Kara feels some tears of her own spring into her eyes, reaches to draw Eliza into a hug and drowning in the comfort that only a mother can provide, her face pressed into Eliza’s shoulder as she struggles not to let any tears fall. “Thank you.”

“Just being honest, sweetheart.” Eliza presses a kiss to the top of her head before pulling away. “Now.” Eliza’s eyes take on a more serious edge, and Kara shuffles her weight from one foot to the other beneath that piercing gaze. “Tell me about Cat Grant.”

“What do you want to know?”

“It’s serious between you two?”

“I wouldn’t have invited her tomorrow if not,” Kara points out softly. “She… she means a lot to me. I don’t expect you to understand that right away, I know it’s not… I know it’s not perfect, there’s an age difference and we’re at vastly different points in our lives because of it but… somehow it works,” she shrugs, because sometimes she doesn’t understand it, either. “And she makes me happy. And I hope that’s enough for you.”

“If she means so much to you,” Eliza starts, and Kara eyes her warily, “then why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone? You usually do, when you start something new.”

“I guess… partly because it _was_ so new and partly because… I didn’t know what you’d say,” she answers honestly, fidgeting with her hands and choosing to look at the skyline instead of into Eliza’s eyes. “I didn’t want you to be disapproving, I didn’t want Cat to _know_ you were disapproving, because her mother tried hard enough to stop us from being together and I think Cat would have listened to you if you said it was a bad idea. She tried to push me away, she tried to talk me out of it and I… I didn’t want anyone else trying to stand in the way of something I wanted. And I’m sorry you found out the way you did, I never meant for that to happen. I would have told you. I don’t know when, but I _would_ have.”

“You really like her,” Eliza murmurs after a few moments of heavy silence where all Kara can hear is the pounding of her pulse in her ears, and when she dares to meet Eliza’s gaze she finds shrewd eyes staring right back at her. “I mean, I know you told me that you do and Alex has, too, but… seeing it is different. Seeing you talk about her is different. And you’re right, Kara – I probably would have tried to talk you out of it. I wasn’t particularly happy when I saw the headlines because she… well, she has a reputation, and it’s not a particularly good one.”

Kara’s lips twitch into a wry smile, because she knows what the media portray Cat as, the ruthless CEO with a heart of ice, but that persona melts away the second she’s behind closed doors, and Kara feels privileged that she gets to see that side of Cat almost every single day.

“But… I trust you, and I trust your judgement, and if you say that Cat is worthy of you, if you say that this thing between you is going somewhere then… I believe you. And I won’t be too hard on her tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” she murmurs again, and Eliza’s smile is warm and Kara feels a little choked up from the love she can see in her eyes. “That means a lot. And it’ll mean a lot to Cat, too. She’s not… she doesn’t have a great family life,” she says quietly, trusting Eliza to keep that particular piece of information to herself. “So tomorrow’s kind of a big deal. For her and her son.”

“Carter, right?” Kara nods, glad that Eliza had remembered the name. “I can’t wait to meet him from everything both you and Alex have told me about him. He seems to have the two of you quite smitten.”

“He’s a great kid.”

“And have you thought about what it means to get involved with someone who has a child? What that might mean in the future? You’re only twenty five, Kara, are you prepared to be a mother to a teenager?”

“Cat is his mother,” Kara tells her, voice unwavering, “and I’m just honoured that she lets me be in his life, in whatever capacity that may be.”

“You sound so grown up,” Eliza replies, the pride in her eyes telling Kara that that was the right answer. “When did that happen?”

“A while ago,” Kara murmurs with a lopsided grin. “But don’t worry. You raised me well enough to fend for myself.” Eliza chuckles, wrapping a hand around Kara’s back as she leads them back out into the living room, where Alex is sitting on the couch with her feet kicked up on the coffee table.

Kara feels a flash of guilt as Alex eyes the two of them, because sometimes she wonders if there’s a lingering resentment, there, with the way that Eliza has almost always coddled her, because of her background, sometimes pushing Alex away to do it, but there’s only a smile on Alex’s face as Kara plops down on one side of her and Eliza the other.

She wonders, not for the first time, what she’d done to deserve a sister and a foster mother like this, and she drops her head onto Alex’s shoulder as Eliza begins to drill Alex on what she’s been up to these past few months, closing her eyes, content to listen to the sound of their voices, and feeling like she’s finally home.


	17. Chapter 17

“Are you ready, Carter?” Cat asks after knocking on her son’s door on Thanksgiving morning. She’s been awake for hours, worried about today – she’s not _good_ meeting the family, can barely believe that things with Alex had gone so well, and she can’t imagine that Eliza Danvers is going to be quite so easy.

From everything Cat has heard about the woman, she seems fiercely protective of the girl that had fallen into her care thirteen years ago, and Cat knows that her approval matters to Kara, will matter if they want a future together, and that is something that Cat wants very, very much.

Perhaps more than she’s ever wanted a single other thing before (save building her own company, making her own brand), and the more time she spends with Kara, the less terrifying that becomes. The more she sees Kara around her son, coming home to find the two of them curled up on the couch watching a movie or painting quietly in the studio that Cat had fashioned for Carter out of one of the guest rooms, the more sure she feels that she could build a life with this woman, if Kara will have her.

And maybe it’s too early to be thinking about that, but she’s in deeper with Kara than she ever has been before, even with the man she’d chosen to marry, and from everything Kara tells her and from the soft way she looks at Cat, like she holds the world in her hands, Cat thinks that the feeling is mutual.

But today is their biggest test yet – even more so than overcoming the obstacle of Cat’s own mother because Katherine Grant’s approval didn’t matter to her, because nothing she ever did was ever good enough, and soon enough Cat had stopped caring enough to try.

Eliza Danvers, however, is a different story, and Cat doesn’t imagine that she’s happy that her foster daughter is in a relationship with someone a year older than she is herself, and Cat knows that there’s a lot riding on today, and she’s _terrified_.

She doesn’t remember the last time she felt this nervous, had barely slept last night and had wished that Kara was curled up behind her with a comforting arm wrapped around her waist, but Kara was busy catching up with her family, and Cat would never begrudge her that.

She’s spent her morning in her home office working in an attempt to distract herself from her impending doom. She usually spent Thanksgiving in her _actual_ office, because Carter often spent the holiday with his father with it being so close to his birthday, and Cat had very little to celebrate being thankful for when she was alone.

CatCo was quiet in the holidays, and Cat revelled in it, the bustle of the bullpen absent and replaced by the low hum of her screens behind her, and she’d often work late into the night, watching the sun set from her throne and the lights of National City twinkle to life, and she’d pour herself a glass of wine and toast to her empire, and for all the things to come.

But this year Carter had asked to spend the holiday with her, and Cat had been happy to relax at home for the day until Kara Danvers had swooped in and changed everything, and Cat can still see the childish excitement that had been on Carter’s face when she’d told him they were spending Thanksgiving with the Danvers’ clan, and it had warmed her heart because she’d meant what she’d said to Kara that day on her balcony.

All she’d wanted was a family for him, bright and large and happy and a world away from the lonely Christmases Cat had spent at boarding school or avoiding Katherine when she’d had one too many whiskeys, and in Kara Cat might have found that for them, and the thought floods her with warmth.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m ready, calm down,” Carter mutters as he yanks open his door, pulling her out of her thoughts. He’s running a comb through his unruly curls, and sighs when Cat plucks it out of his hands and spins him around with a hand on his shoulder, making sure he looks presentable.

He’s wearing jeans and a shirt, a tie looped around his neck and he looks so grown _up_ when he’s dressed up like this that sometimes it hurts Cat to look at him, because she still remembers what it had felt like the first time she’d ever held him in her arms.

He’d been red-faced and squalling, wrapped in so many blankets that it was hard to find the baby hidden within them, and Cat had gazed down at his beautiful face and fallen absolutely and completely in love, and she’d vowed that this time, with this baby, she was going to do _better_.

She wasn’t going to fail him like she’d failed Adam.

And now he’s thirteen and he’s growing up so fast, and Cat is scared that if she blinks she’s going to miss it.

“You don’t need to worry, you know,” Carter tells her when Cat’s finished fixing his hair, turning to face her and blinking up at her with earnest eyes that make him look wiser than he has any right to. “Kara likes you, and Alex does, too. She told me the other day that no-one’s made Kara happier than you do.” Cat smiles softly, because sometimes she still finds it hard to believe that Kara wants to be in her arms. “And her Mom’s gonna love you, too.”

“We’ll see,” Cat murmurs, with a heavy sigh.

“She will,” Carter replies with a wide smile and a certainty that Cat wishes she could feel, too. “She sounds really cool. She’s a doctor. Kara told me to distract her by talking about science if you start looking uncomfortable.”

“She did, did she?” That’s news to Cat, and it makes her lips twitch into a smile as Carter nods his head. “Well, come on, we should probably get going.” Carter follows behind her into the kitchen, where she picks up her purse and the pie she’d made yesterday at Kara’s request because Eliza hadn’t had the chance to bake one this year, and apparently it wasn’t a Danvers’ Thanksgiving without a chocolate pecan pie, which just so happens to be one of Cat’s specialties.

Carter’s the one who knocks on Kara’s door, Cat’s hands filled with the pie and too nervous to do it herself, anyway, and she feels some of nerves ease when the door is pulled open to reveal Kara, eyes as bright as her smile.

“Hey!” Her voice is cheerful, and Carter tackles her in a hug despite it being only four days since they’d last seen one other, and Cat watches them with fond eyes as Kara chuckles and wraps an arm around his back, ushering Cat inside. “They went out to get coffee,” Kara explains when she notices Cat casting her eyes around the apartment to catch a glimpse of Alex or Eliza but finding it empty, and she sets the pie down on the kitchen counter and lets out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. “Are you okay?”

“She’s nervous,” Carter supplies, from where he’s stood in-front of Kara, her arms draped over his shoulders. “And she hates being nervous.” With that he wanders away, into the living room to give them some privacy, and Cat lets Kara pull her into her arms and feels the remainder of her worries ease away as Kara leans down to brush a gentle kiss against her lips.

“It’s going to be fine,” she murmurs against Cat’s mouth, her hands warm at the small of Cat’s back through the silken material of the black and white dress she’d donned for the occasion. “I promise.”

“You don’t know that, though,” Cat replies, even though she feels herself relaxing with every second she spends in Kara’s arms.

“I _do_ ,” Kara assures her, kissing Cat again – this time it lingers, long enough for her to feel her pulse start to race as her heartbeat quickens, and when Kara leans away there’s a light flush on her cheeks that accentuates her beauty.

Cat’s ready to disagree again but the words die in the back of her throat when she hears a key in the lock, and Carter bounds back over to the kitchen counter at the sound of it, rocking back on his heels as the door is pressed open and Alex and her mother step inside.

Kara keeps her arms around Cat’s waist as Cat turns, forcing a smile though she feels like she might be about to pass out as Eliza Danvers’ appraising eyes meet hers, and Cat is relieved to see that the smile on Eliza’s lips is genuine and not faked, and warms to the other woman immediately when she sees the way her eyes soften as she glances at Carter, hovering nervously a few steps in-front of Cat.

“Eliza,” Kara starts, giving Cat a little nudge in the back as Eliza approaches the kitchen, Alex shutting the front door behind them, “this is Cat. Cat, my foster Mom, Eliza.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eliza.” Cat extends a hand towards her and is surprised when instead of taking it, Eliza draws her into a hug, instead. She stiffens for a moment before hugging the other woman back, sure that her shock must show on her face when Eliza releases her, if the light chuckle she lets out upon meeting her gaze is any indication.

“It’s wonderful to meet you too, Cat. I’ve heard a lot about you – in the last two days, at least.” She shoots Kara a glance over Cat’s shoulder, and Cat turns to see her throwing Eliza a slightly sheepish look. “And you must be Carter.” She turns her eyes to him, bending down slightly so they’re the same height. “Kara speaks very highly of you. You’ve made quite the impression on her, it seems.” Carter’s cheeks flame red at the praise, and he looks down at his feet for a long moment before darting his eyes up to meet Eliza’s, a shy smile on his face. “I hear you’re quite the painter, too.”

“Not as good as Kara.”

“She tells me you’re better than she was at your age,” Eliza whispers as though it’s a secret, and Carter grins, his eyes lighting up, and Cat feels a rush of warmth towards Eliza as she watches Carter warm to her immediately, and she can see how, with a mother like her, Kara and Alex are so effortlessly good with her son where so many others had fallen short.

“You really said that?” Carter turns to direct that towards Kara, his eyes wide, and Kara grins and reaches out to ruffle his hair.

“’Course I did, and I meant it, too.” Carter beams up at her, and Cat watches Eliza’s face carefully, watches the way her eyes soften as she sees the way Kara looks at Carter, a soft smile on her face as she glances between the two of them, like she can barely believe what she’s seeing, and Cat thinks that maybe she can do this, after all.

“Thanks, Kara.”

“You’re welcome, kid.” He skips off over to Alex to start on the long list of questions he’s accumulated since the last time he saw her about his science project, leaving Cat alone with her girlfriend and the foster mother who’s looking at her with soft, curious eyes.

“Shall we get started on dinner?” Eliza asks, the question directed at her rather than Kara – whilst she’s come along somewhat with her skills in the kitchen since the two of them had started dating, she still has a long way to go before she can tackle something like Thanksgiving dinner without being more of a hindrance than a help. 

“Just tell me what you want me to do,” Cat offers, because none of this is her tradition – she’s used to spending this holiday cooped up in her office with a glass of scotch, but she knows the Danvers get together every year, knows that it’s an important part of their family tradition and is humbled that Kara has asked her and Carter to be a part of it this year.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Kara pipes up, settling her hands lightly on Cat’s hips as she leans forward to press a brief kiss against her cheek before she’s slinking over to the couch and flicking through the channels until she finds the football.

“Kara likes to turn into a football fan once a year to avoid having to help out in the kitchen,” Eliza tells her conversationally as she shrugs out of her jacket, draping it over the back of a nearby chair before washing her hands in the sink, and Cat chuckles quietly as Kara leans over the back of the couch to stick her tongue out at her foster mother. “Whilst Alex and I slave away.”

“You let me help my first year with you and I almost burnt the house down,” Kara comments as Carter settles down next to her, Alex folding herself into the armchair beside the couch with a smirk on her mouth. “It’s safer for everyone if I stay out of the way.”

“How on earth did you manage that?” Cat asks curiously, and Eliza smiles softly as she reaches for two chopping boards and hands one to Cat, resting the other on the counter in-front of her.

“She put aluminium foil in the microwave,” Eliza tells her with a wry shake of her head. “Luckily my husband noticed before she pressed start.”

“Seriously, Kara?” Carter asks, eyes alight with amusement. “I knew not to put metal in the microwave when I was like, four.”

“Oh, whatever,” Kara mutters, sinking down in her chair and pouting. “It was _one_ time and it never happened again.”

“Yeah, because you weren’t allowed near the microwave for another three years,” Alex adds, and Kara glowers at her, seizing the pillow from behind her and launching it in the direction of her sister’s face. Alex is quick to duck out of the way and throw it back at Kara, who catches it and tucks it back behind her.

Cat watches them with a smile, having spent enough time around the both of them by now to be used to their antics but still amused by them, and looks hastily away when she notices Eliza glancing her way.

“You care about her,” she murmurs, too quietly for the other three, attention caught by the TV in-front of them, to overhear.

“I do.” It’s not a question, but Cat still feels the need to answer it like one. “More than…” She trails off, casts her eyes over to where Kara sits, watches the easy and effortless way both she and Alex include Carter in whatever they’re discussing. “More than even I can believe, sometimes.” She takes a deep breath and turns her attention back to Eliza, who’s watching her with a careful gaze, appraising her every word. “I know you can’t exactly be thrilled about the idea of her dating me, but - ”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Eliza interrupts her, voice soft, and Cat blinks at her for several long moments, surprised by the question – she wonders if all the Danvers’ women have the ability to make her, someone who has built her entire life drafting words and constructing careful sentences, speechless.

“I… well.” Cat drums her fingers against the marble countertop she’s resting her hip against as she searches for the right words. “I don’t exactly have the greatest reputation,” she offers, because she knows what she’s portrayed as in the media, and it’s rare that she’s painted in a particularly good light, not that she _cares_ what they write about her.

Though sometimes the things she sees about her relationship with Kara sting more than she’s willing to admit, but it’s erased the second that Kara looks at her with those bright, sparkling eyes or flashes her one of those wide smiles that make her heart skip a beat.

“And I’m a busy woman, and that can often get in the way of things I’d rather it wouldn’t.” Eliza doesn’t interrupt her again, still watching Cat with an unreadable expression on her face. “There’s the rather noticeable age difference.” She casts a glance towards Carter. “I can’t say I’d be delighted if Carter brought home someone closer to my age than his.”

“Would you change your opinion if you knew that person made him happy?” Eliza asks, surprising her all over again. “If you knew that that person cared about him? Wanted the best for him?”

“I… I suppose.” Eliza’s smile is warm, and she curls a hand over the back of Cat’s hand to still the restless movement of her fingers.

“I admit, I was apprehensive when I first saw that cover story - ”

“I know Kara’s already apologised for that, but I should, too,” Cat interrupts, because she’d been careless about that, had known the image of Kara’s lips against hers would be splashed across the front pages come morning but she hadn’t even considered the potential implications of it. “You shouldn’t have found out that way, and I’m sorry you did.”

“It’s already forgotten about,” Eliza replies with a wave of her hand. “I know why she didn’t tell me sooner and I can’t say I blame her, either. She thinks I wouldn’t have been supportive of it, and perhaps I wouldn’t have been, because I did wonder, when I saw that story, what your angle was.” She looks at Cat almost apologetically. “And that’s not to say I was wondering what you saw in Kara because god knows I know how wonderful she is, but… she’s not exactly your usual… type.”

“No, she’s not,” Cat concedes, lips twitching into a small smile. “But I think that’s part of the reason why I like her so much,” she admits, voice quiet as she glances once more back over to where Kara sits, arm around Carter’s shoulders and his head resting on hers. “She’s… different. Refreshing. And the way she is with Carter…”

“She loves him,” Eliza tells her, and Cat feels her heart thud almost painfully in response to the soft words. “I can see it in her eyes whenever she looks at him, he’s won her over just as much as you have. And I can see how much that means to you, too.”

“It means the world.” Kara turns as though she can sense that they’re talking about her, meets Cat’s gaze and quirks an eyebrow, a silent ‘are you okay?’, and Cat just smiles warmly at her in response until she turns her attention back to her sister when Alex calls her name. “And I know that your approval means the world to her.”

“You already have it,” Eliza murmurs with a small shrug. “Like I said, I was apprehensive at first, but the way she talks about you, the way she looks at you, how happy she is around both you and Carter and the way she cares… that’s enough, for me. That’s enough for me to know that this is real, that there’s no point standing in the way because she’s already made up her mind. And you, Cat…” She trails off, gives a small shake of her head, lips curved into a smile. “You’re an incredible woman. And I already knew that, of course,” Cat’s lips curl into a small smirk, “but actually meeting you is something different. I can tell that Kara’s important to you, that you’d go to the ends of the earth to make her happy, so so what if you’re older than her? Age is just a number, after all.”

“I… thank you,” Cat manages to get the words out through the lump in her throat, through the tears that threaten to sting at her eyes thanks to the way that Eliza is looking at her, with warm, wise eyes. “That… it doesn’t just mean a lot to Kara. It means a lot to me, too.” Eliza squeezes her hand before she pulls Cat into another hug, warm and comforting and when she glances over Eliza’s shoulder it’s to find Kara staring at them, and the look of quiet amazement and complete adoration on her face makes Cat’s chest physically ache.

“Welcome to the family, Cat,” Eliza whispers into her ear and this time Cat’s eyes _do_ cloud over with tears that she has to hastily blink away, because this woman has just accepted her into her daughter’s life without question, something that is just… completely unimaginable to her, because her own mother would never in a million years treat Kara so warmly.

“Thank you,” she whispers back, her throat tight as she struggles not to let any tears fall, and Eliza rubs a comforting hand over her back before pulling away and pretending not to see as Cat wipes a finger under her eyes.

“Now, we really should get started on the food if we want to be eating before the day is over. The turkey’s already cooking away, do you want to start on the potatoes and I’ll do the green bean casserole?” Cat nods and reaches for a knife from the drawer behind her and draws the bag of potatoes towards her. “The pie looks delicious, by the way.”

“I just hope it’s up to the usual Danvers’ standard,” Cat murmurs with a small smile, “I’ve been told that it’s the best part of the day, watching Kara trying to eat her weight in pie.”

“She goes a lovely shade of green,” Eliza comments, and Cat chuckles quietly. “Did she tell you why chocolate pecan is her favourite?” Cat shakes her head – she hadn’t asked when Kara had requested it, didn’t realise that there might be a reason. “It was what her mother used to make for her every year.” Cat sucks in a small, pained breath, casts her eyes over to Kara, now completely absorbed in the game whilst Carter and Alex talk quietly, sees the wide smile on her face as she cheers on her team and wonders how she can be so bright when she has lost so much.

“When she came to us she was… quiet. Withdrawn. It took us a while for her to coax her out of her shell – perhaps one of the reasons why she’s so good with Carter is because she knows how he feels. Thanksgiving was the first holiday she spent with us, and I knew it would be hard for her. We wanted to try and incorporate some of her family traditions into our own so that she would feel more at home, and she didn’t ask for a thing other than chocolate pecan pie.”

“Why am I not surprised that her first requests was for something chocolatey?” Cat says dryly, even as her heart aches for Kara, for how small and scared she must have been, that first year without her parents and in a new home in a new town, away from everything she’d ever known.

“Because she’s always had one hell of a sweet tooth.” Eliza’s eyes sparkle as they watch Kara, fond smile on her lips. “I bought her so many donuts over the years, you wouldn’t believe.” She shakes her head and Cat grins. “But what I’m trying to say is, it doesn’t matter how good the pie is. So long as it’s there. So long as it reminds her of home.”

“I’m glad she found her way to you,” Cat offers after a moment of heavy silence punctuated only by the sound of potatoes peeling, Cat keeping her eyes on the knife held carefully in her hands, Eliza’s curious eyes resting heavily on the side of her face. “I grew up… I didn’t have the greatest home life. I don’t have any traditions of my own because after I lost my father I spent the holidays alone.” She hears Eliza draw in a breath, speaks quickly before the other woman offers her any sympathy. “And I’m glad that Kara didn’t have to grow up that way, too. That, despite what happened to her, she found herself someone as loving and accepting as you.”

“And I’m glad that she’s found herself a girlfriend as wonderful as you.” Cat glances up to meet Eliza’s earnest gaze, shares a warm smile with the other woman and almost can’t remember what she’d been so worried about. “I’m assuming that your mother isn’t quite as supportive?”

“That’s an understatement,” Cat scoffs with a small shake of her head. “Not that she’s ever been supportive of me a day in my life,” she adds, more quietly. “So I didn’t expect any different. I stopped caring about her approval a long time ago.” Katherine would never be satisfied with her, no matter what she did; Cat had learned that at a very early age.

“I’m sorry,” Eliza murmurs, the words ringing with sincerity. “I can’t imagine that was an easy way to grow up.”

“Not particularly.” Cat‘s face twists into a grimace as she says it, because _that’s_ an understatement, too. “But it’s all behind me now. I see her… hmm, maybe twice a year and that’s more than enough for either one of us.” She suspects that number may decrease in light of her budding relationship with Kara and finds that she doesn’t really care. “I just wish Carter had gotten better grandparents.”

“He’s not close with his father?”

“No,” Cat shakes her head as she tips the potatoes into a pan and sets it on the stove. “And his father’s parents… we didn’t really get along. I don’t tend to make the best first impression.”

“Well, you’re doing okay with me so far.” Cat smiles softly, relaxing more and more with every passing second she spends in Eliza’s company – she can see why Kara loves her so much, and why she’d been so certain that today wouldn’t be as much of a disaster as Cat feared it could be. “I would like to learn a little more about you, though.” Cat glances up at her, wary, but there’s only open curiosity on the other woman’s face. “Kara’s told me some, of course, but… I’d like to get to know the woman my daughter’s so crazy about. And I’m sure, considering who you are, you have a fascinating history.”

“Probably not to you,” Cat hedges, because they have very different career paths and Cat isn’t entirely sure why the careful construction of a media empire would fascinate the mind of a doctor like Eliza Danvers.

“Well, tell me and we’ll find out,” Eliza replies, a bright smile on her mouth that reminds her so much of Kara and makes it impossible for her to deny her.

They cook, moving around Kara’s kitchen with an easy kind of familiarity, like they’ve done it a thousand times before, and they ask one another questions and tell stories, because Cat wants to get to know Eliza, too, and she realises, the more that they talk, that this is a woman that she could become friends with, a woman that she wouldn’t mind spending more time with, and she wonders what it is about the Danvers’ that make them so damn captivating.

Eliza regales her with stories of Kara’s teenage years that make her smile. One makes her laugh so hard that tears fall from her eyes, and it earns them a shocked look from Carter, who rarely sees his Mom so relaxed around someone she barely knows, and an amazed and fond look from Kara – that quickly turns into a scowl and a pout when she realises why Cat’s laughing so hard.

“You’re not supposed to be embarrassing me, Eliza!” She complains, peering at them over the back of the couch with accusing eyes as Cat wipes at her own with the back of her hand. “Cat’ll realise what a mistake she’s making being with me and I’ll never see her again.”

“She’s too crazy about you for that to ever happen,” Eliza replies smartly, without glancing up from the recipe in-front of her, and Cat’s heart warms at the words, spoken so freely and honestly. “And as a parent, it’s my job to embarrass you in-front of your new girlfriend. It’s tradition.”

“One I’m only too happy to partake in,” Cat adds, her eyes glittering with mirth, and Kara pouts and pouts and looks absolutely adorable.

“Maybe I was wrong to wish you two would get along,” Kara mutters darkly as she retreats from the back of the couch to instead huddle back down in her seat, attention returning to the football game that Cat hasn’t paid a single second of attention to.

“Go and sit down,” Eliza says a moment later, as Cat’s stirring one of the pans on the stove, at a bit of a loss of what to do now that they’re just waiting for everything to finish up. “I can hold down the fort in here for a while.”

Kara’s still pouting by the time that Cat wedges herself into the tiny gap between the arm of the couch and Kara’s body, draping her legs over Kara’s lap as she shifts to sling one arm around Cat’s shoulders to draw her closer.

“I’m very sorry for laughing at your fourteen-year old self for walking into a closed glass door and giving yourself a concussion,” she says, managing to keep a straight face even as Carter snickers from Kara’s other side, hearing the story for the first time, and Kara glowers until Cat wipes it away with a gentle kiss.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Kara murmurs into her ear, arms wrapping tight around Cat’s waist, “and therefore impossible to stay mad at.”

“I can tell you some embarrassing stories about Carter, if that would make you feel better.” Her son turns to her and gives her his best Cat-Grant-esque glare – it’s a fierce one, and it makes Cat beam because she’d taught him well. “Or about me. Want to hear about the time I fell out of a window and into a bush because I drank too much whiskey my first Christmas away at boarding school?”

“Is that a true story?” Kara asks, lips twitching with amusement.

“Mhm. It’s how I got this scar.” She holds up her palm to let the light catch the tiny silvery slash of scar tissue. “Nearly ended up with a branch right through my hand. I’d like to say it put me off whiskey for life but, well… you’ve seen my liquor cabinet.” Kara chuckles, and Cat taps her index finger against the scar that sits on Kara’s forehead, just above one of her eyebrows. “Did you get this walking into a door?” She asks, smirking, and Kara’s laugh turns into a glower as Cat looks up at her innocently.

“Nah, she got that when she tripped over her own feet in our yard and smashed her head open on a potted plant,” Alex helpfully supplies. “It was so bad, there was blood _everywhere_. Mom completely freaked out.”

“I’m not surprised,” Cat says dryly, because she can’t say that she’d react well to the sight of Carter with a bloody forehead.

“We weren’t allowed any plants after that,” Alex says solemnly, and Cat chuckles quietly as Kara rolls her eyes. “A travesty, really.”

“At least I didn’t fall out of the treehouse in the backyard,” Kara fires back, “because I stole a bottle of vodka from Eliza’s liquor cabinet and drank too much in one go.” Alex glares, shooting a furtive glance towards Eliza in the kitchen, and Cat assumes that she’s unaware of the reason _why_ Alex fell out of the tree.

“No wonder you and I get along so well, Alex,” Cat murmurs dryly, “considering we both have a penchant for drunkenly falling out of things.” Alex’s glare turns into a grin, and Kara shakes her head wryly before poking Carter in the side.

“And don’t you go following in your Mom’s footsteps, kid.” 

“I won’t,” he answers very seriously, and Cat smiles softly as she watches Kara playfully ruffle his hair – he scrunches his face up in response, and that just makes Cat’s smile widen.

Kara’s attention turns back to the football game, then, and Cat makes an attempt to watch it but quickly gets distracted in favour of watching Kara, instead. She finds herself staring, sometimes, still scarcely able to believe that she’s real and right now, wrapped up in her arms and struggling not to drown in those brilliantly blue eyes, Cat can’t look away.

“I didn’t know you were a fan,” she murmurs when the third quarter finishes for a quick break, Kara tearing her gaze away from the screen to look at Cat, instead, and Cat nods towards the game when Kara raises a questioning eyebrow. “Of football.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not, really. But I used to… on Thanksgiving I used to curl up on the couch with my Dad and watch the games while my Mom cooked for us.” She worries at her bottom lip, casts her gaze down to focus on her hands, wrapped around Cat’s waist, eyes darkening in that way they always do whenever she talks about her parents. “I think I got my terrible culinary skills from him.” Her voice is soft, quiet, and her lips curve into a small, sad smile. “He was an awful cook, and we weren’t allowed in the kitchen so we stayed in the lounge, instead. Sometimes Clark’s family would be with us and he’d sit with us while his parents helped my Mom with the food.”

“The holidays must be a hard time for you.”

“They’re okay,” Kara shrugs, lifting her head to meet Cat’s eyes. “Easier than they used to be, and Eliza… she always tried to make things as close to home as she could. She’s pretty great that way.” Kara glances over her shoulder, soft smile on her face as she watches Eliza in the kitchen.

“Yeah, she is.”

“I’m glad you’re getting along.”

“Me too.” Kara’s smile is so wide that it practically has her glowing, and Cat feels an answering warmth spread through her because she doesn’t remember a time where she felt like this, so surrounded by love and warmth and _family_.

Because that’s what this is to her, already – Kara isn’t someone she’s going to let slip away like she has so many others, already thinks that she might like a life with her, even if it won’t always be quite this easy, because she’s well aware that they’re still very much in the honeymoon phase and they still have a long way to go if they want to make this work.

But she _wants_ it to work, more than she’s ever wanted anything else before in her life, and she knows that Kara wants that, too.

She thinks it’d be nice, to have a lifetime of holidays like this, Alex and Kara bickering and Cat and Eliza watching on with fond eyes, Carter being spoiled by the lot of them.

“Thank you for inviting us,” she says softly, holding Kara’s gaze and smiling into the kiss that’s pressed against her lips a moment later.

“Thank you for saying yes,” Kara replies when they part, a sparkle in her eyes because she’s well aware of how terrified Cat had been about this day. “I told you it’d all work out.”

“You did,” Cat agrees, resting her head on Kara’s shoulder and breathing her in, wondering if it’s ridiculous that she’s missed the feeling of Kara’s arms around her despite it being just two days since they’d visited her old studio. “I didn’t believe you.”

“I know,” Kara grins, lips pressed against Cat’s temple. “It’s okay though, you can make it up to me later.” Cat rolls her eyes and bites her tongue to keep a list of suggestions of how she might do just that the next time they’re alone together to herself.

“Anyone feel like mashing some potatoes?” Eliza calls a few moments later, and Alex is quick to jump to her feet, waving Cat away when she moves to follow her.

“Can I help?” Carter asks, craning his neck to look over the back of the couch. He’s used to helping Cat out in the kitchen, one of their favourite things to do at the weekend to cook or to bake – Kara is a fan of that last one – and there’s an excited smile on his face when both Alex and Eliza wave him over to help.

Cat watches him for a moment as Alex finds him a box to stand on so that he’s tall enough to properly reach the counter and sets him up with the potato masher as she and Eliza begin to get everything ready to be served.

“I know it shouldn’t still surprise me,” Cat says as she turns back to Kara, who’s watching her with a fond look in her eyes, “but it still does, seeing how at ease he is around your family.”

“I’m just glad he feels comfortable around them,” Kara replies quietly, fingers toying absentmindedly with a strand of Cat’s hair. “Around me. That still surprises me, too.” Kara’s eyes flit over the back of the couch, and the look of love in her eyes as she gazes at Carter takes Cat’s breath away, because she’d never expected to find this, someone to want both her and her son, someone who cared about them both equally, and it’s a part of what makes Kara so damn special and Cat never wants to let her go.

“Do you two lovebirds wanna set the table?” Alex looms over the back of the couch to interrupt their moment, smirk on her mouth as they both jump at the sound of her voice, though her gaze is soft as she glances down at them, and Cat knows it’s because of the happiness that shines so obviously in Kara’s eyes.

Cat busies herself getting glasses whilst Kara sets out the cutlery, pouring red wine into two, one for each of the Danvers’ sisters and white into her own and Eliza’s glass, pouring some soda into Carter’s as he and Alex carefully begin to transfer plates of food over from the kitchen and into the centre of the table.

There is a _lot_ of food – Kara’s appetite is matched by her sister, after all – and Cat is almost fearful that there won’t be enough room for it and the five of them at the table but somehow it all manages to fit.

Eliza sits at the head of the table with her daughters on either side of her, Cat beside Kara and Carter opposite her next to Alex, and Cat can’t help but laugh at the wide-eyed look on Kara’s face as she gazes around her at all the food.

“This looks _amazing_ , Eliza, thank you.” Cat shoots her girlfriend a glare, and she rolls her eyes, smile tugging at the edges of her lips as she adds, “And thank you, too, Cat.”

“Better,” Cat murmurs out of the corner of her mouth, and Kara squeezes her thigh gently.

“Before we eat,” Eliza murmurs as she curls a hand around her wine glass, “let’s start with a toast.” She raises her glass and meets the gaze of everyone around the table. “To family.” She holds Cat’s eye as she says it, and she feels a flash of warmth flood through her as she raises her glass and echoes the sentiment as she clinks it against the others. “I’m thankful that we can all be here together today, that both my daughters have grown into such wonderful, successful women.” Both Kara and Alex groan, and Cat smiles softly. “I wish that your father could be here to see it, too.” Eliza reaches a hand to her neck to toy with the wedding ring that sits on a chain there, and both Alex and Kara reach for her other hand and squeeze it gently.

Kara doesn’t talk much about the foster father that she’d lost not all that long after she’d gone to live with the Danvers’, but from what she’d heard Jeremiah Danvers was just as wonderful as Eliza.

“I know he’d be so proud of you both.” Tears glitter in Eliza’s eyes before they’re hastily blinked away. “And I wish he could be here to meet you, Cat, and see how happy you’ve made our daughter.” Cat inclines her head towards Eliza at the honest words, feeling her heart beating quickly in her chest, warmed down to her very soul.

“I’m thankful that we can all be here today, too,” Alex speaks next. “I’m thankful that I have my sister back in the same city as me, cause I’ve missed you so bad these past few years.” The two sisters share a brilliant smile, and Cat knows they’d be hugging if there weren’t a table between them. “And I’m thankful that my sister’s found someone that makes her smile more than I’ve ever seen, and that I’ve gotten to meet the greatest kid ever.”

“I’m thankful that I met you, too,” Carter replies shyly, staring down at his napkin, toying at the edges of it with his fingers nervously, in favour of meeting anyone’s gaze. “And you, Kara.” He darts his eyes up for one brief second before looking away. “Thank you for teaching me so much, and for making my Mom so happy.”

Cat has to blink away tears of her own at the quiet words, and she knows, as Kara turns to face her with a small smile playing at the edges of her lips, that she’s probably going to let some fall when she hears what this gorgeous woman who had stolen her heart so effortlessly has to say.

“I’m thankful to be back with my family,” Kara starts, glancing towards her foster mother and sister with a warm smile. “Thankful that I have such a _wonderful_ family; I couldn’t have asked for better, and I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me. For treating me like I’m your own,” she lets her gaze rest on Eliza, who smiles softly in return and squeezes her hand. “For being my best friend.” She turns to Alex, who grins. “I’m thankful that the universe brought me to a woman like you,” she turns to look at Cat then, her eyes soft and vulnerable and Cat still doesn’t know what she’s done to deserve her. “With a son like you,” she looks at Carter with a wide smile. “You’re the greatest kid I’ve ever met, and I’m so glad I did. So glad that I left that box in the hall for your Mom to trip and yell at me over.” Cat rolls her eyes, though a fond smile tugs at her lips. “I’m thankful for you every single day, Cat,” Kara finishes, voice barely more than a whisper. “And I will be for however much longer you want to keep me around.”

“Always,” Cat answers softly, and Kara’s answering smile makes her heart skip a beat, even as Alex’s and Eliza’s chorus of ‘aww’ makes her roll her eyes. “I’m thankful to the Danvers’, for welcoming both me and Carter with such open arms.” Both Alex and Eliza raise their glasses slightly towards her in acknowledgement. “I’m thankful for my wonderful son, who I couldn’t be more proud of. I love you.” Carter’s cheeks turn red as he stares resolutely at the tablecloth, and Cat tears her gaze away from him to rest on Kara, instead. “And I… I am so, so thankful for you, Kara. Thankful that I met you. Thankful that you never gave up on me, on us, no matter how hard I tried to make you.”

There’s a part of her that can’t believe how hard she’d tried to stop any of this from happening, tried to distance herself from Kara because she was so terrified of letting her in. And some of that fear does still linger, sometimes, but god, it’s worth it for the way that Kara’s looking at her right now.

“Thank you for putting up with me,” she finishes quietly, and Kara darts forward to press a brief kiss against her lips.

“You say that like it’s a hardship,” Kara murmurs against her mouth, and when she leans back Cat finds Eliza watching them with a soft look on her face and she knows that despite Cat thinking it impossible at the start of the day, she’s managed to win the eldest Danvers over, and she doesn’t think she’s ever felt as happy and content as she does in that moment. “Can we eat now?” Kara asks then, excitement in her voice, and both Cat and Eliza chuckle in tandem as they nod, and Kara is the first of them to pile her plate high with more food than Cat thinks should be possible for her to eat.

She does, of course – and she goes back for seconds.

 _And_ she still manages to fit in a huge slice of pie afterwards.

Cat knows that, at this point, Kara’s immense stomach capacity shouldn’t still amaze her, but it _does_.

At least this time she looks like she regrets it as she lies back across the couch and groans at how full she is, and Eliza only shakes her head fondly as Cat slips under Kara’s legs to sit with her on the couch, Carter curling up on the floor with his back against Cat’s legs, Alex and Eliza both managing to fit in a single armchair.

They play games and they tell stories and they _laugh_ and Cat looks around their little circle, at Carter’s beaming smile, at what could be their family, and feels like her heart might burst from the happiness that floods through her at the sight.


	18. Chapter 18

“Hey, gorgeous.” Kara grins at the sound of Lucy’s voice, turning from where she’d been directing caterers towards the back of the gallery to set up and allowing herself to be yanked into a bone-crushing hug. “This place looks amazing.”

“Thank you.” Lucy steps back and casts her eye around the room, taking in the various pieces on display with wide eyes, having missed out on Kara’s first gallery opening because of work. “Glad you could make it.”

“I’m just sorry I missed the last one.” She turns back to Kara with a warm smile. “And that it’s been so long since I last came to visit. I can’t wait to move here.”

“You guys are going apartment hunting this weekend, right?” Lucy nods, and Kara grins, because she can’t wait until she and Lucy are living in the same city – they never have been before, and she’s excited to be able to spend more time with the woman who’s practically a second sister to her.

“We’re free tomorrow night though, if you wanna hang out.”

“I… kinda already have plans with Cat and Carter,” Kara murmurs apologetically. “We’re going ice skating.”

“You’re going without me?” Lucy pouts, and Kara rolls her eyes. “But we always go together! You’re my perfect ice skating partner.”

“We can go next week.”

“ _Or_ we can double date.”

“I don’t think Cat would go for that…” Kara trails off, worrying at her bottom lip, because she’d had a hard enough time trying to get her to agree to go in the first place.

She’d had to be _very_ persuasive.

“You’ll never know if you don’t ask her,” Lucy replies sweetly, making her smile. “Ask her later.”

“Oh, she’s not coming tonight. She has a business dinner.”

“Does that bother you?”

“No,” Kara answers honestly, because she’d meant what she said to Cat on their first ‘official’ date – she understood that work had to come first, sometimes, and it’s not like tonight is a particularly important event, either.

Cat had told her to bring Carter along, though, and she’s had him helping her to set everything up, explaining about lighting and order and placement of each and every piece, and he’d listened to her with wide eyes and rapt attention, like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever heard.

They’d snuck out for a half hour, leaving Kara’s interns in charge, to go and get some ice cream, Carter catching her up on his week at school and his latest ideas for their comic strip, and Kara had listened just as intently.

It still surprises her, sometimes, how much she _cares_ about him. She’d never imagined herself around kids, because she was so spectacularly awful at it, but Carter… he makes her laugh and he makes her smile and he makes her _proud_ (just last week he’d nervously handed her a painting, the first one he’d done by himself without any input from her, and it had been so, so beautiful and when he’d told her it was a present, that it was _hers_ , she’d pulled him into a fierce hug and struggled not to cry), and she _loves_ him, so much more than she ever thought she could.

“Things are still going well with you two, then?” Lucy asks with a knowing smile, and Kara’s pretty sure that she’d just gotten that goofy (Alex’s words, not hers), smile on her face that always seemed to end up there whenever she let her thoughts wander towards her girlfriend and her son.

“Amazing,” Kara all but gushes, because it’s been nearly three months, now, and things are still going better than she could have ever hoped.

Cat and Eliza had gotten along swimmingly, and even though she’d always suspected they would, the reality of it had been so much _better_ , and she’d just been so _happy_ for the entirety of Thanksgiving weekend, because she had gotten to spend so much time with her three favourite women and her favourite teenager, and she feels like she’s been on cloud nine ever since.

Eliza had pulled her to one side at the end of the weekend, just before she left (after giving both Cat and Carter, who she’d come to absolutely adore, a tight hug), and told her to never let Cat get away – that if she did, Eliza might just snatch her up for herself because she was wonderful.

And Kara had laughed and hugged Eliza goodbye and told her that she had no intention of ever letting Cat go.

Eliza’s been pestering her about Christmas ever since, wanting Kara to ask both Cat and Carter to come with her and Alex when they return to Midvale for the holiday, and it’s driving her _insane_ , as much as she loves the fact that Eliza is so smitten with her girlfriend.

She just… she doesn’t know if it’s too _soon_ , doesn’t know what Cat or Carter usually do on the holidays, or if they’d even want to come, because Cat’s life is here, _CatCo_ is here, and Kara doesn’t know if she’d want to be away from the office for a whole week.

Alex tells her that she’d lose nothing by just _asking_ Cat about it, but she hasn’t quite managed to find the words yet, and Christmas just keeps drawing closer and closer without her doing a thing about it.

“Good,” Lucy replies, voice warm. “Then there will be no issue with you asking her if she minds James and me tagging along to skate with you tomorrow.” Kara laughs as Lucy grins, terribly pleased with herself and her eyes lighting up when she spots Carter wandering towards them. “Carter, hey. I have a question for you – wouldn’t ice skating tomorrow be so much more fun if I was there?”

“ _Just_ you?” He asks, an easy smile on his mouth – he’s been getting better, Kara has noticed, at talking to people. She’s seen it in him today whilst he’s been helping her out, and it’s made her smile each and every time. “Or is James coming, too? Because I’m already gonna be a third wheel, I don’t need to be a fifth.” Kara chuckles at the joke, draping her arms over Carter’s shoulders and pulling him into a half-hug as Lucy pouts.

“We can invite Alex, too.”

“Nah, she’d want to bring her girlfriend.”

“Alex has a girlfriend?!” Lucy looks at Kara with offense in her eyes. “Why the hell does Carter know that Alex has a girlfriend before _I_ do?”

“She works with Alex,” Carter shrugs. “I’ve seen them together.”

“Carter met her before _I_ even got to meet her,” Kara adds with a wry shake of her head – Alex had finally introduced Susan to her over a pizza just last week, and Kara had been won over by her in about ten seconds, because she was sweet and kind and she made Alex’s eyes light up with joy in a way that was so rare for Kara to see other people bring out in her. “I think she’s coming tonight, actually.”

“Well, you can point her out to me after I kick Alex’s ass for not telling me about this sooner,” Lucy mutters darkly, and Kara chuckles quietly.

“When you move here you won’t be so out of the loop,” she points out, and that makes Lucy’s expression brighten.

“True. I’m still gonna kick her ass, though.” Kara doesn’t doubt it – she may be tiny, but Lucy can pack one hell of a punch, and she and Alex used to spar for fun, until their competitive nature had landed Lucy in the ER with a sprained wrist, and Alex a black eye.

They’d stopped after that, calling it even.

“I could always invite someone tomorrow,” Carter suggests a moment later, a little nervously. “Then we’ll all be in pairs and my Mom won’t be so worried – if you don’t let her fall,” he adds, glancing up at Kara with wide, serious eyes. “She will actually _kill_ you if you do, you know that right?”

“I know, and I won’t.” She’s kind of a pro at skating. She has no idea _how_ , considering how clumsy she is on a daily basis, but apparently being on ice makes her as graceful as she’s always wished she could be on dry ground. “Who you gonna bring?”

“I was thinking of asking Jaime.” Kara had met him once, when she’d popped over to Cat’s place one night for one of those cooking lessons she’s become so fond of. Carter and his friend had been sat at the kitchen counter with their heads bent over a comic book; Jaime had been quiet but sweet, and he reminded Kara a little of Carter.

Cat had had a look of quiet amazement on her face whenever she’d glanced at the two of them, and had told her later that night, when Carter had gone to bed and they were curled up on the couch with a glass of wine and trading lazy kisses, that it was the first time he had ever invited someone from school over to the apartment. The first time he’d ever really had a _friend_ , and Kara’s heart had ached for him, because once upon a time, she’d been like Carter – when she’d moved to Midvale she’d been shy and reserved and she’d eaten lunch in a toilet stall because the cafeteria was loud and frightened her, and she’d withdrawn further and further into herself until Alex had slowly and carefully began to draw her out of her shell.

She’d remembered how happy she’d been, on her first sleepover, with her first friends in the new town, and hoped that Carter was feeling that same warmth that she’d had in her chest that night.

“Cool. Let me check this is okay with your Mom before you ask him though, yeah? In-case she tries to kill me for turning our family night into a quadruple date.” Carter nods and grins before slinking away, and Kara turns back to Lucy to find her friend eyeing her curiously.

“What?”

“You said ‘our family night’,” she points out, and Kara flushes, because she hadn’t even realised she’d let that slip.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” She glances towards Carter, who’s carefully pouring himself a glass of orange juice from the table the caterers have just finished setting up. “But I mean… they kind of are.” Lucy has one of those huge grins on her face, and Kara grins and shoves at her shoulder. “Stop it.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re just so _cute_ when you talk about them, Kara. It’s actually adorable.”

“Alex disagrees.”

“That’s because Alex is an idiot who doesn’t tell her best friend when she has a new girlfriend,” Lucy replies, very seriously, and Kara grins. “I’m so happy things have worked out for you, though. Cat’s great and Carter… he’s a great kid. And both of them are lucky to have someone like you in their lives.”

Kara smiles softly and draws Lucy into another hug, squeezing until she yelps and bats her hands away.

“I need to go and get changed – come help me zip up my dress?” She leads Lucy back towards her studio when she nods, slipping out of her jeans and t-shirt and into the dress – it’s a vibrant red, floor-length and hugging all of her curves, with a zip that runs from the back of her neck to the small of her back, and a plunging neckline that makes Lucy let out a low whistle when she takes a step back to admire it.

“ _Damn_ , girl. Cat’s going to be so upset she missed out on you looking like that. You should send her a photo to get her through her boring business meeting.”

“You think?”

“Oh yeah. It’s what I’d do. Have done before, on multiple occasions. It always gets me good results back at home.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, and Kara shakes her head with a laugh. “Gimme your phone.”

She hands it over a little reluctantly, lets Lucy take a quick snap of her and then quickly snatches her phone back before she can write something filthy in the caption – there’s already a message half-written, and Kara’s cheeks flame as she reads it, Lucy cackling beside her at the reaction.

She deletes it and types ‘wish you were here’ instead, fires off the text before popping her phone back into her purse and slipping into her heels, ready to parade around the room like a show pony, and she might hate events like these but at least her friends will be with here tonight to keep her from going too crazy when she’s asked the same three questions over and over again.

(“What does this piece _mean_?” “But what does it _really_ mean?” “What _inspires_ you?”).

James is the first to arrive, waltzing through the door and drawing Kara into a hug and Lucy into a kiss as Kara does one last rushing circuit of the room with Carter at her side, making sure that everything is perfect (even though she knows it already is, because they’ve done this at least three times already).

He’s dressed in his best suit and he looks so smart and professional and _adorable_ and Kara smiles every time she glances at him, sticking close to her side as people start to trickle in from the street outside.

She keeps one hand wrapped around his shoulder, whispers in his ear that if he ever feels too overwhelmed he can go and find James and Lucy but he shakes his head and tells her that he’s here to learn, that one day he might have his own gallery opening and he won’t be able to hide away if that day ever comes, and Kara’s eyes well with tears of pride and after that she keeps him close and tries to include him in the conversation as much as she possibly can, and as much as he’s comfortable with.

He flushes when she introduces him as her protégée, but Kara watches him come alive when a couple of her guests bend down to talk to him about what he’s working on, eyes soft as she sees the joy flicker across his face.

When they get a brief reprieve she wanders over to where her friends and sister have gathered, smiles warmly at the woman tucked into Alex’s side, Alex’s arm slung around her back.

“Hey, Susan, glad you could make it.”

“Glad to be invited. I don’t claim to know much about art but this is amazing, Kara. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Susan smiles back at her, and Alex’s eyes are soft as they flit between Kara and her girlfriend. “I just hope it’s not too boring for you. And that Lucy,” she glances towards her friend, who stares innocently back, “isn’t being too hard on you.”

“She’s being hard on Alex,” Susan tells her with a grin, and Alex makes a face. “She’s been wonderful to me.”

“Because _you’re_ not the one who kept a massive secret from me,” Lucy points out, feigning disappointment as she shakes her head, solemn look on her face. “You know, Alex, I really thought we were closer than this.”

“I hate you.” Lucy smiles widely at Alex’s words. “I mean it.”

“No, you don’t, you love me.”

“I do _not_.” Kara grins, used to their bickering, and wanders back towards her pieces, leaving Carter behind to talk to Susan about something related to work – she quickly regrets it though, because her night is a lot less fun with him at her side.

She’s in the middle of a super boring conversation with some guy that thinks he’s an expert in art just because he went to a museum one time when she feels a warm body press against her side, a hand sitting low on her back, just above where her zipper ends, and she tenses for one long moment before she recognises the perfume, relaxes beneath the light touch as Cat brushes a thumb across the small of her back.

“Can I buy you a drink?” She asks, leaning up on her tiptoes to breathe the question into Kara’s ear as Mr Boring continues to prattle on, and Kara nods, Cat clicking away on expensive heels and by the time she returns with a glass of red wine in one hand and a scotch in the other, Kara has thankfully managed to escape and turns to focus her attention solely on her girlfriend as Cat hands Kara her drink, brushing their fingers together deliberately.

“What are you doing here?” Kara asks, automatic smile on her mouth at the unexpected sight of Cat – and god, what a sight she is, in a tight black skirt that Kara is amazed she can even walk in (she almost wants to see Cat walk away from her, because she’s betting her ass looks just as amazing as her calves do in those shoes), and a white blouse that’s got three daring buttons undone, flashing enough of a hint of cleavage to make Kara’s mouth dry. “And I hope you undid that extra button for me, and not for your business meeting.”

“Jealous?” Cat asks, eyes sparkling, gasping as Kara steps close and wraps her free arm around Cat’s back, dipping her head to press a kiss against lips painted blood red.

“Maybe.”

“I undid _two_ extra buttons for you,” Cat tells her as Kara leans away, and she grins. “My meeting got pushed to another day, some kind of emergency.” Cat waves her hand in a dismissive gesture. “So I thought I’d come here, instead. See you in action. See you in that _dress_.”

Cat’s eyes dip to take Kara in, heated gaze running across the plunging neckline and her tongue wetting her lips – Kara shivers at the way Cat looks at her, like she wants to devour her, eyes dark and dangerous.

“It wasn’t fair to tease me with that photograph.” Cat’s voice is breathy, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as her eyes linger at Kara’s chest, and it makes Kara’s stomach flip in the best of ways.

“You didn’t like it?”

“I liked it a little _too_ much,” Cat tells her, voice low and rough, and the hand that curls around Kara’s hip grips her hard, makes her gulp as Cat’s eyes flash with desire. “I’ll show you _how_ much later.” She breathes that against Kara’s ear, and god, she likes the sound of _that_ , is already counting down the minutes until she can get out of this place and drag Cat back home to her bed. “But for now… I’ve paraded you around at enough events – it’s time I let you do the same.”

Kara grins, settling a hand at the small of Cat’s back as she guides her towards the centre of the room, where Kara is promptly set upon by several guests that she hasn’t had the chance to speak to yet.

Cat looks a little lost in the conversation, sometimes, though there’s always a soft smile on her face whenever Kara glances down at her that widens whenever Kara introduces Cat as her girlfriend, and her eyes sparkle with warmth as she watches Kara gush about the things that she loves.

“I want to ask you something,” Kara murmurs the next opportunity they have to snatch a few minutes alone, and Cat tilts her head back to meet Kara’s gaze. “I, um… you know Lucy’s in town this weekend, right?”

“Mm.”

“Well, I told her about our plans for tomorrow and she kind of… she wants to come. With James. And maybe Alex and her girlfriend could come, too? I know you’re not sold on the idea anyway,” she adds, because Cat lacks both her and Carter’s enthusiasm, is only going because she wants to spend time with the both of them together. “So if you don’t want them to, then that’s okay.”

“No,” Cat answers, after a moment of deliberation. “You should spend time with your friends whilst they’re all here. And I had fun, at games night – Carter too – so this might be fun, too. As long as none of them laugh at me if I fall over.”

“I won’t let you fall,” Kara promises, grinning, and Cat kisses it away with a hard press of her lips that makes Kara crave more. “Carter wanted to invite his friend Jaime, too, so he won’t be the odd one out.”

“I don’t see why that would be an issue,” Cat murmurs, smiling softly as she glances over Kara’s shoulder towards where her son stands with Kara’s friends. “I’ll go and tell them, while you talk to that guy over there that’s been eyeing up that piece all night.” She inclines her head towards one of the larger paintings on the walls, a huge canvas of the sun setting above the city.

“Wait, before you go,” Kara catches Cat’s wrist before she slips away. “There was something else I wanted to ask.” Cat just stares at her expectantly, looking wary when Kara fiddles nervously with the bracelet that sits on her wrist. “I… I was wondering if you had any plans for the holidays.”

“The holidays?” Cat looks confused by the question, eyebrows knitting into a small frown.

“Yeah. Cause me and Alex… we’re going home for Christmas, back to Midvale, and Eliza… she’s been asking about you and Carter, like a _lot_ ,” Cat smiles fondly at the words, “and I was wondering if maybe… you’d like to come with us.” Cat blinks in surprise, clearly taken aback by the offer, and Kara wonders if maybe she’d been right to think that it was too soon, rushes to explain herself. “I mean, you don’t have to and it’s okay if you say no, but I just thought that I’d - ”

“Kara.” Cat’s eyes twinkle with amusement just like they do every time she hears Kara go off on one of her nervous rambles. “Calm down. I wasn’t saying no, I was just… surprised. You’d really want us there?”

“Are you kidding? Nothing would make me happier.” She slides her hand from Cat’s wrist and down to her hand, tangles their fingers together and squeezes gently. “Being away from you for a week would suck.”

“I’d have to fly back between Christmas and New Year’s,” Cat cautions, but she looks like she’s considering it and Kara’s heart feels so full it could burst. “But otherwise… I don’t see why we couldn’t come. We usually spend Christmas at the apartment, just the two of us, but it would be nice to spend it with others. To spend it with you.” Kara smiles softly and squeezes Cat’s hand tighter as Cat rubs her thumb gently along the inside of her wrist. “I’ll ask him what he thinks, and then we’ll see what we can work out.”

Cat shoots her an almost shy smile, like she still can’t believe that Kara’s _there_ , that she wants her with her family for the holidays, but for Kara Cat _is_ a part of that family already.

“There is one more thing…” She hesitates, because Cat has just agreed but she knows that springing this on her might make her change her mind. “Uh, Lois and Clark will be there, too.” Cat stiffens slightly at the mention of Lois Lane, and Kara worries at her bottom lip as she waits for her response.

“They’re not spending it with Lois’ family?”

“They usually do,” Kara tells her quietly, “but because we’re going back to Midvale, and because Clark and I haven’t really seen one another for a while… they’re coming up this year, too.” Kara hates the fact that she can’t read the look in Cat’s eyes. “It’s okay if that makes you change your mind.”

“It doesn’t,” Cat murmurs eventually, smiling softly when she sees the hope that blooms across Kara’s face. “What happened between Lois and I was years ago, and I can put that aside for a week in the spirit of the holidays. Just for you.”

Kara grins and Cat leans up to kiss Kara one last time, deep and slow and maybe bordering on the line of inappropriate for a function like this but Kara doesn’t _care_ , feels it all the way down to her toes and blinks after Cat, slightly dazed, when they part and the elder woman wanders away.

She glances up, as she talks to the guy that Cat had pointed out to her earlier, and finds Cat standing with an arm draped around Carter’s shoulders, lips curved into a beautiful smile as she laughs at something that Lucy’s saying to her, surrounded by Kara’s friends and family, and thinks that she just might be the luckiest woman alive.

x-x-x

“If you let me fall,” Cat leans over to whisper the words into Kara’s ear as they’re both sitting on a bench to put on their ice skates, pressing against her side, a hand resting dangerously high on Kara’s thigh, “then you’re not getting any for a week.”

“I’ve already said that I’m not going to let you fall,” Kara reminds her, trying to keep her breathing steady as Cat’s hand flexes on her thigh, nails digging, a little threateningly, into her skin through her jeans.

“A little extra incentive can’t hurt,” Cat murmurs in reply, a wicked and self-satisfied smirk on her lips when she pulls away. “Because I _mean_ it, Kara.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Because Cat can be one _hell_ of a tease when she wants to be. Just last week, after Kara had accidentally spilled red wine over one of Cat’s rugs because she was made too clumsy by the sight of the woman in nothing but black lace lingerie, Cat had secured her hands to the headboard with silk ties, straddled her hips, pressed her body close and touched herself until she came with Kara’s name on her lips.

Three times.

It was _torture_ , and Kara had never been so desperately turned on before in her _life_ , and she’d vowed never to get on the wrong side of Cat ever again because she wasn’t sure she could take much more of that particular kind of punishment without exploding.

“But I’m not going to let you fall, so it’s a moot point.” Kara pushes herself to her feet and offers Cat her hand, hauling the other woman up beside her. Cat’s fingers grip her own tightly, and they’re not even on the ice yet – she wonders if she’s going to be losing all the circulation in her hand before the night is over.

She decides that it’ll be worth it.

“You kids ready?” Kara turns to ask Jaime and Carter, sitting on the bench a little further down, and they both nod and hop to their feet, Kara reaching out to steady them both when they wobble a little. “Take it slow, yeah? Your Mom will kill me if either of you gets hurt.” Jaime nods with serious eyes, but Carter just grins. “I don’t get punished if these two fall, do I?” She directs that at Cat as she retakes her hand, satisfied that both Carter and Jaime have their balance.

“No, because I expect you by my side all night and you can’t watch all three of us at once.”

“Gee, thanks, Mom.”

“This was _your_ idea,” Cat points out, eyes sparkling as Carter smiles up at her. “If it were up to me, we’d be at home on the couch right now playing Settlers of Catan, _so_ , if you fall, it’s your own fault.” Carter just rolls his eyes, and Cat reaches for his shoulder when he makes to walk away. “But be careful?”

“I will, Mom.” It’s not enough to alleviate the concern on Cat’s face, but she lets the two of them wobble over to the door to the rink, worrying at her bottom lip as she watches them step onto the ice.

“They’ll be okay,” Kara assures her, giving Cat’s arm a tug to encourage her to follow after her son and his friend. “And so will you. Come on, scaredy Cat.” Cat _glares_ , fierce enough for Kara’s smirk, happy with her joke, to slide from her face.

“One more Cat pun and you’re not getting any for a week, either.” Kara just chuckles, dragging Cat over to the ice. She pauses at the interface of rubber mat and slick ice as Kara steps onto the rink, their hands still clasped, glancing nervously down at the slippery surface that Kara is balancing effortlessly on.

She gives another little tug on Cat’s hand, and she watches her take a deep breath before she takes a hesitant step forward. She slips as she moves onto the ice, but Kara is quick to steady her, wrapping an arm around her waist as Cat grips at her upper arms like it’s her last lifeline, hard enough to make her wince.

“Okay?” She asks when she thinks that Cat’s heart has stopped racing in her chest, slowly slipping her arm from around Cat’s back to reach for her hand, instead, when she nods. “Grab hold of the wall with your other hand, we’ll go slow,” she promises, and Cat lets out a shaky breath as she stretches her other hand for the wall, fingers gripping tight as Kara encourages her to move forward. “You’re supposed to skate, not walk,” she says with a laugh as Cat lifts each foot individually, but Cat just huffs out a sigh and glares at her once more.

Lucy whizzes by them, spinning in a tight circle before coming to a stop just in-front of Cat, hands curling around the railing and flashing them a dazzling smile, cheeks flushed despite the distinctive chill of the cool night air.

James follows a moment later, a lot less gracefully, breathing out a sigh that sounds a lot like relief as he stops beside his fiancée.

“You okay there buddy?” Kara asks, amused glint in her eyes as she watches James try to catch his breath, Lucy giving him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“I’ve been better,” he tells her with a wry shake of his head. “ _You’re_ supposed to be the one trying to keep up with her.” James is an okay skater, but whenever she and Lucy go together, the two of them are always whirling around the rink, leaving everyone else staring after them with wide eyes. “I can’t take it.”

“Later,” Kara promises both him and Lucy, because she’s sure that after a while Cat is going to ask to slip away back to solid ground, sip at some eggnog whilst she watches the rest of them having fun. “After this one lets me go.”

“You can go now,” Cat tells her, already attempting to inch her way back to the rink door. “And I’ll just - ”

“Not so fast,” Kara interrupts, tightening her hold on Cat’s hand. “We’re getting some skating time in. Holding hands, looking up at the stars,” she flickers her eyes up to the sky above them, clear and absolutely beautiful, “it’s _romantic_.”

“There is nothing romantic about being in constant fear of death,” Cat sniffs, and Kara laughs as she presses close to Cat’s side to press a kiss against her cheek.

“Drama queen.”

“You’re really pushing your luck tonight, aren’t you?” There’s very little malice in Cat’s tone, though, and her eyes and that soft smile that threatens to pull at the edge of her lips both scream affection. Kara just flashes Cat one of those grins that light up her whole face, one of the ones that always make Cat roll her eyes because she thinks it’s cheesy and adorable.

“Come find me later!” Lucy calls over her shoulder before she’s darting away, and James stares after her for one long moment before letting out a long-suffering sigh and following in her footsteps.

“Give me your hands,” Kara decides to try a new tactic, shifting so that she’s in-front of Cat and taking one of Cat’s hands in each of her own, holding tight as she begins to move them backwards, achingly slowly as she feels Cat resist her every step of the way.

“You’re going to crash into someone,” Cat hisses as Kara moves them a little faster, Cat gripping her so hard that she’s sure her knuckles, beneath her gloves, will be white.

“I’m sure you’ll tell me before I’m even close to doing that,” Kara murmurs dryly, because Cat’s eyes are alert and darting all around them. “Will you just relax? You trust me, don’t you?”

“Usually, yes, unquestionably, but this?” Cat shakes her head, and Kara can see her nerves in her eyes. “Not so much.”

“Don’t believe that I actually know what I’m doing?” She teases, and Cat lets out an undignified little shriek when Kara spins them around so that she’s now the one going backwards, Kara moving her feet faster now that she can see where she’s going.

“I’ve seen you trip and fall at least once pretty much every single day I’ve known you,” Cat points out, voice breathless, “so forgive me for having a hard time believing that you’re a skating star.”

“Well, I am,” Kara tells her, giving Cat a small reprieve once they’ve successfully done a lap of the rink. “And maybe you could be, too, if you _relaxed_ and actually moved your feet a little instead of letting me drag you along.”

“I don’t know _how_ ,” Cat mutters, mouth twisting into a pout, and Kara wonders how often it is that Cat admits that can’t do anything – from the almost angry look on her face as she says it, Kara’s guessing it doesn’t happen regularly. “I didn’t exactly have the kind of mother that would take me to the rink at the weekends like you did.”

“I know,” Kara murmurs quietly, squeezing Cat’s hands gently, tugging her closer until they’re chest-to-chest and ducking her head to press a lingering kiss against waiting lips. “But let me teach you.”

Cat still doesn’t look entirely convinced, but she nods, and Kara guides her through it, pleased when Cat begins to hold her own, a frown of concentration on her face as she attempts to keep up with Kara, skating beside her, now, Cat’s hand still clutched tightly in her own.

“See? It’s not so bad,” she murmurs the next time they pause at the side of the rink, wrapping her arms around Cat’s waist and sliding her hands into the back pockets of the jeans she’s wearing, squeezing gently as Cat’s arms drape over her shoulders. “You’re still alive.”

“Barely.” There’s a slight flush on Cat’s cheeks, her eyes bright as she looks up at Kara’s face, and she’s so beautiful, illuminated by the moonlight, that it almost hurts to look at her.

“You can’t tell me you’re not having fun,” Kara murmurs, ducking her head to breathe the words against Cat’s lips, and Cat hums, curling a hand around the back of Kara’s neck and bringing her into a kiss, sucking softly on her bottom lip and dragging it between her teeth when she pulls away.

“The kissing is fun,” Cat says as Kara looks down at her with eyes tinged with desire, “and being with you is fun, but the skating?” Cat shakes her head. “Not so much.”

“So what you’re saying is more kissing, less skating?” Kara asks, and at Cat’s wicked smirk Kara leans down and presses Cat gently back against the side of the rink, gentle fingers tangling in Kara’s hair as Cat tilts her head and opens her mouth for Kara’s searching tongue, moaning as Kara’s hands squeeze harder at Cat’s ass.

When their lips part they’re both breathless, Cat’s cheeks even more flushed than they had been before, and her eyes are dark, glittering in the moonlight as she glances up at Kara, lips reddened from the force of their kisses.

“Definitely more kissing,” Cat tells her, and Kara grins because she could spend a lifetime doing just that. “But maybe not so much like _that_ with my son around.” She inclines her head to a spot somewhere over Kara’s shoulder, and she turns to find Carter laughing along with Jaime as they speed past. “At least he looks like he’s having fun.”

“Yeah.” Kara watches them for one long moment, and when she turns back to Cat she finds her doing the same, soft, loving look in her eyes. “They’re holding hands,” she notices, and Cat hums quietly. “That’s adorable.”

“He’s not old enough to date.”

“They’re probably just friends that don’t wanna fall over,” Kara points out, but there’s a light in Carter’s eyes that Kara’s never seen there before and she wonders if maybe there’s more to it, after all. “And if they’re not, you’re not allowed to go into protective Mama bear mode and scare him away.” Cat’s lips curve into an amused smirk, and Kara shakes her head.

“Oh? Are you going to stop me?”

“Mhm. Jaime’s a good kid, and so is Carter. And maybe there’s nothing there or maybe there is, but you’re not allowed to stand in the way.”

“I wouldn’t, if he was happy.”

“I know.” Cat rests her head on Kara’s shoulder, still watching Carter and Jaime carefully. “But you might give a thirteen year old boy the ‘hurt my son and I’ll make your life a living hell’ speech and scar the poor kid for life.” Cat inclines her head, because they both know that that is definitely something that she would do.

“If he comes to you about it, will you tell me?” She doesn’t look at Kara as she says it, in her eyes traces of a vulnerability that Kara rarely sees anymore, that fades away the longer they spend together and as she becomes more assured that Kara isn’t going anywhere if she can help it.

“What?” Kara is surprised by the question. “Why would he come to me?”

“Because he loves you,” Cat murmurs, and Kara’s heart thuds at the admission, eyes flitting over to Carter, both he and Jaime now being spun around and around by a grinning Lucy, and he’s laughing and his eyes are so, so bright and god, Kara loves him too. “And he trusts you.”

“He loves and trusts you, too,” Kara points out, but Cat shakes her head.

“Yes, but… I’m his mother. It’d be different, with you. He might feel like he can talk about… certain things with you over me, especially with how much time you spend together and how much he already shares with you.”

“Does that bother you?” Kara asks quietly, because it kind of sounds like it does.

“I… maybe a little,” Cat answers, and Kara wraps an arm around Cat’s waist and squeezes gently at the raw honesty shining in her eyes. “Because he’s my son and I’ve always been the one he came to with things, but… it also doesn’t bother me, because I want you to be there for him like that, too. You’re so important to him – to _me_ – and I respect that, I _want_ him to be comfortable around you, especially if… we become more serious one day.” They haven’t talked about a future, much, because it’s still early on and they still have so many things to learn about one another.

She knows that one day there will be a discussion, though – of marriage and babies and all the other things important for building a life together – but it’s one she doesn’t think either one of them is ready to have, yet.

Kara can see it, though, see a life with Cat, and with Carter, and god, she wants nothing more than that, to wake up with Cat in her arms each and every single day for the rest of their lives.

“But I can’t promise that a part of me won’t be hurt the first time he goes to you instead of me.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” Kara replies softly, and Cat looks almost relieved. “For the record, though, I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon.”

“I don’t know,” Cat shrugs, “you’ve made quite the impression on him. And you’re very… approachable.”

“That’s your best descriptor of me? Approachable?” Kara teases, just to see Cat give one of those dramatic eye rolls that Kara loves to much.

“You know very well that it’s not.” Cat nudges at her shoulder, but it’s not hard, and Kara knows it’s because she doesn’t want Kara more than an inch away from her in-case she suddenly slips and falls. “But it’s an important one for Carter.”

“If he asks me anything about Jaime or about dating or about love in general, you’ll be the first to know,” Kara replies, and Cat smiles softly. “Unless he swears me to secrecy, and then, well… I can’t break that promise, he’ll never talk to me again.”

Her eyes sparkle with amusement as Cat swats at her shoulder, and Kara slips away from her hand, skates into a spin that puts her about a foot in-front of Cat, out of reach unless she releases her death grip on the wall and moves towards her.

“Kara!” Cat is glaring now, but the ferocity of it is damped, somewhat, by the pout on her mouth. “Get back here this _instant_.”

“Come and get me,” Kara taunts, and she swears that Cat actually _growls_ and maybe this time she’s pushing things too far.

“ _Kara_.” Cat’s voice is pure warning, and Kara rolls her eyes, pushes herself back to the railing, back to Cat’s side. “ _Not_ funny,” Cat informs her as she seizes Kara’s hand in a grip that tells her that she’s not letting go anytime soon.

“Hey, Kara.” She’s saved from having to grovel to get that frown off of Cat’s face by the arrival of her sister, careening to a stop beside them, tugging a white-faced Susan Vasquez behind her. “Hey, Cat. You look like you’re having as much fun as Susan here is.”

“You’re a crazy person, Danvers,” Susan whispers, curling her free hand around the railing and holding on tight, and Kara laughs at the expression on her face, wonders how fast Alex had been speeding them around the rink.

“Glad you guys could make it,” Kara murmurs, because after not hearing anything from her sister when she’d texted her the time earlier that day, she hadn’t known if the pair of them were still coming.

“I’d say sorry for being late, but,” Alex smirks, and Susan flushes, and Kara has very little doubt about just _why_ they were late, “I’m really not.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Susan’s flush deepens as Alex’s smirk widens, and Kara shakes her head. “You seen Luce yet?”

“Nah, where is she?” Kara points to where Lucy is still whirling Carter and Jaime around by the hand, James watching them from afar with a wry look on his face. “I’m gonna go race with her,” Alex decides, and Kara makes a mental note to keep Cat the hell out of her way because they are _competitive_ and if anyone steps into their line of fire, well, they’d better be ready for a collision. “You wanna come?” She directs that to both Susan (who quickly shakes her head), and Kara.

“Maybe in a bit,” Kara hedges, because she’s kind of having fun with Cat, even though she clings onto her so tight that Kara is sure she’ll have bruises in the morning. “Go have fun, we’ll look after your girlfriend.”

Alex pauses for a moment, glancing at Susan to make sure that’s okay with her, but she just smiles and waves Alex away, and after another few seconds she goes, moving across the ice with an easy grace that leaves both Cat and Susan in awe.

“Wanna do another circuit?” She asks Cat, who nods and pushes herself away from the railing, keeping her balance better than she had before. “How about you, Susan? I have a spare hand, and I swear I don’t go as fast as Alex does.”

“Okay.” Kara tugs the both of them along, and uses the opportunity to learn a little more about her sister’s girlfriend, because she’s never had the chance to talk to her before without Alex hovering close nearby, shooting Kara daggers whenever Alex felt that she was hovering too close to ‘interrogation’.

She’s quiet and slightly shy, but Kara manages to draw her out of her shell somewhat, and by the time they spin to another stop, beside James who’s still catching his breath, the three of them are laughing, and Kara feels like she knows Susan better, and she’d already known that she was perfect for her sister because Alex didn’t date, ever, so she must have been pretty special, but now she’s even more sure of it.

“Hey, Mom!” Carter careens to a stop as they do, tugging Jaime along behind him, both of their cheeks flushed red with joy. “Can we go and get some hot chocolate?”

“Of course we can, sweetheart,” Cat answers warmly. “It’ll give Kara the opportunity to show off like I know she’s been wanting to all night.” Kara grins, because the chance to whizz around with her two best friends is not one to be missed, and she’s been looking forward to it.

“Can you make it to the exit?” Kara teases as Cat gives her hand one last squeeze before letting go, and the withering glare she shoots over Kara’s shoulder makes her laugh, delighted.

“Don’t push it, Danvers.” Kara speeds away, still laughing as she lets Carter and Jaime drag Cat towards the nearest exit from the rink, Susan and James following in their wake now that they know it’s acceptable for them to escape, too, and she smiles when she watches Cat let out a visible sigh of relief the second she’s back on solid ground.

And then Kara is thoroughly distracted, because she’s suddenly grabbed from both sides, Lucy on one and Alex on the other, dragged into a high-speed skate along the outside of the rink, wind rushing in her ears and tangling her hair, her laughter lost to the air around them as her sister and Lucy release her in favour of a race, instead.

They finish off the night by trying to show off with some of the tricks they’ve learned over the years, which ends with Lucy on her ass in the middle of the rink, and both Kara and Alex laughing so hard at her fall that they both end up flat-out on the ice beside her, too.

Kara’s the quickest to scramble back to her feet, pushing Lucy down again before she can completely right herself, earning her a glare ferocious enough to rival one of Cat’s, and Kara darts away before Lucy can reach out and drag her back down to the floor, skating to the nearest exit as Lucy threatens her life, hot on her heels.

Cat is standing with her arms resting on the side of the rink, a disposable coffee cup held in one hand, James standing beside her and Carter and Jaime sitting with Susan on a table a little ways away.

“Enjoying yourself?” Cat asks, eyes glittering with amusement and her smile wide enough to crinkle them at the corners as Kara comes up behind her, pouting when she sees that Cat has swapped her skates for her shoes.

Because she’s wearing flats and Kara is still wearing her skates, though, it _does_ have the advantage of meaning she has an extra couple of inches on Cat, who has to tilt her head back slightly to look her in the eye, and Kara smirks, settling her hands on the railing on either side of Cat’s hips.

“Maybe. Told you I was a pro.”

“At falling over?” Cat teases, hands sliding over her hips and squeezing the wet patch on her ass where she’d landed on the ice before retreating to slip through the belt loops of Kara’s jeans to tug her closer.

“That was Lucy’s fault.”

“Was _not_ ,” Lucy comments as she reaches them, James wrapping her up in a hug before she can move to kick Kara’s ass.

“Did you get her falling on camera, James?” Kara asks sweetly as Lucy glares at her.

“No,” he murmurs with a twinkle in his eye as Lucy smiles, pleased that her mishap hasn’t been caught on camera, “but Cat did.” Kara nearly cackles as she watches that smile slide of Lucy’s face, Cat smirking in her arms.

“Let me see,” Kara asks, and Cat rolls her eyes before fishing for her phone in the pocket of her jacket. Her background picture is a snap of Kara and Carter, curled up on Cat’s couch on one of their film night’s, Kara’s face turned towards the camera with a soft smile and Carter fast asleep on her shoulder, and it makes Kara smile each and every time she sees it.

She waits patiently for Cat to find the video, turning the phone towards Kara and Lucy, who comes up beside her, once she presses play, and Kara is _delighted_ to have this moment on film because Lucy’s fall is even more fantastic the second time around.

“Oh, I am _so_ playing this at your wedding,” Kara tells her as she watches herself and Alex trip over their own feet, unable to control their giggles, as Lucy glowers up at them with her hands folded across her chest.

“You are _so_ not,” Lucy fires back, reaching for the phone like she’s going to try and delete the video, but Cat is quick to lean the phone away and slip it back into her inside pocket.

Lucy eyes Cat, and the pocket, thoughtfully for one moment, and Kara gives her the side-eye.

“Manhandle my girlfriend,” she starts, because she _knows_ that look and it’s usually followed by Lucy launching herself towards whatever she wants to get her hands on, “and you’ll regret it.”

“Fine, fine,” Lucy gives a dramatic roll of her eyes to rival one of Cat’s – the elder woman looks impressed for one long moment. “Embarrass me at my wedding. I’ll get you both back.” She says it sweetly but her smile is all teeth and edged with a threat, and Kara has very little doubt that she’ll make good on it one day.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll see.” Lucy makes a face at her before James pulls her away, and Kara turns back to Cat with a soft smile. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Cat’s eyes twinkle with the light of the moon, her cheeks no longer flushed but her hair is wind-swept and she’s still a vision, still a goddess that Kara knows she’s lucky to have.

“Still claim that tonight was no fun?”

“It was… adequate,” Cat eventually settles on, and Kara bites her lip to hide her next smile. “You certainly looked like you enjoyed yourself. I’m sorry I slowed you down so much.”

“You didn’t,” Kara tells her, but Cat just raises a disbelieving eyebrow. “Okay, maybe a little, but... I didn’t mind. It might shock to hear this, Cat, but I like spending time with you.”

“Really?” Cat’s lips twitch. “That _is_ brand new information.”

“Shut up.” She does, but only because Kara kisses her – she tastes like coffee and happiness and _home_ , and Kara doesn’t think she’ll ever get tired of having Cat pressed against her like this, hands tangled in her hair and sighing softly into her mouth, never known a peace as perfect as the one she feels with Cat Grant held tightly in her arms.


	19. Chapter 19

Cat wakes on December twenty second with a face-full of blonde hair and an armful of the one and only Kara Danvers, and smiles softly when she sees the time on her alarm clock, because she still has another half an hour before she has to get out of bed.

Kara is still fast asleep, and Cat leans over to switch off the alarm because there’s no point in waking her when Cat knows for fact that she doesn’t have anywhere to be until noon, and even Kara isn’t capable of sleeping in that long.

She turns back towards her girlfriend when it’s off, arm sliding over her hip and front pressing against her back, sighing at the feeling of so much bare, smooth skin against her own, pressing her nose into Kara’s hair, the side of her neck, closing her eyes and breathing her in.

Each and every morning she wakes up like this, Cat marvels at how lucky she is. The day they’d first met she’d had no idea that Kara would come to mean so much to her, would embed herself in Cat’s life so completely that it was hard to imagine a world without her – and Cat doesn’t _want_ to.

She was almost too scared to let herself have this, to let her heart open itself to another and to immerse herself in the happiness of falling in love.

She never thought she’d love again, after Christopher, but she looks at Kara sometimes – especially like this, illuminated in the soft glow of the early morning sunlight, and Cat leans up on one elbow to glance down at her, eyes closed and face relaxed in sleep – and feels like her heart is swelling with the force of it, making her chest tight, and the words are always, always at the tip of her tongue but she hasn’t dared to say them yet.

Because that makes it real in the most terrifying of ways, even though Cat is sure, from the way Kara looks at her sometimes, her gaze heavy and warm on Cat’s skin like the sun’s rays, that she feels the same, she’s still not sure if she’s ready to take that last final step over the precipice and tumble into a future with Kara by her side.

Cat dips down to press a kiss against Kara’s cheek before slipping from the bed, pausing as she hears Kara grumble in her sleep behind her, worried she’s woken her up – but she turns back to see her still sleeping peacefully, and draws the covers carefully over her waist before walking into her bathroom and stepping into her shower.

The water is hot against her skin, easing the ache of her tired muscles from a night of that incredible sex she and Kara keep having whenever they get the chance. She lathers up her hair and closes her eyes, letting the water beat against her and chase away the last remnants of sleep – and promptly blinks them open again when she hears the bathroom door creaking open behind her.

Kara stands in the doorway smothering a yawn with the back of her hand, her hair a complete mess and yesterday’s make-up smudged across her face, blinking heavily for a few moments as she adjusts to the harsh lights of the bathroom.

“Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is that really you, Kara Danvers, out of bed before six a.m.?” Cat calls teasingly as Kara’s overcome by another yawn, smirking at the glare that’s directed her way – losing some of its effect seeing as Kara’s eyes are barely open anyway. “What are you doing?” She continues, when Kara pads over towards the shower and tugs the door open, stepping inside.

“Showering with my really hot girlfriend,” Kara replies as she pulls the door shut behind her and closes her eyes, stretching her arms over her head, and Cat can’t help but stare and lick her lips at the sight Kara presents before her, because _she_ is most definitely the hot one, all smooth skin and taut muscle that Cat aches to get her hands on.

“But you should still be in bed,” Cat points out, because it’s hours and hours before Kara needs to be getting herself ready for the long trip to Midvale. “I know how much you value your sleep.”

“Not as much as I value you,” Kara tells her, sweetly enough to make Cat smile instead of rolling her eyes at the sentiment like she might have done a few months ago. “I don’t get to see you for a couple of days, I gotta make these last moments count.”

“It’s two days, Kara,” Cat points out with a wry shake of her head, although the thought of both Kara and her son so far away for that length of time makes her stomach flip a little unpleasantly.

“I don’t care,” she shrugs. “It’s two days without you.” She blinks her eyes open to eye Cat curiously. “And you’re still sure you’re okay with me and Alex taking Carter today?”

“Yes, Kara.” She’s asked this same question almost every day for the past week, as though she’s constantly expecting Cat to change her mind, to put a stop to the Danvers sisters’ plus Carter road trip that the three of them have planned.

She was invited too, of course, but her commitments at CatCo mean that she can’t take quite so long off, and is flying to Midvale on Christmas Eve, instead.

That doesn’t mean that Carter can’t go along early though, especially when, if he stayed, he’d only be spending time with Ella or curled up on one of the couches in Cat’s office whilst she worked, and he may as well spend some more quality time with the Danvers’, considering that this will hopefully be the first of many Christmases to come.

“Just checking,” Kara murmurs, and then she’s stepping close to Cat and backing her into the corner, and Cat lets out a gasp as her overheated skin hits the cool tile, hands already reaching for Kara, sliding over her shoulders as she steps under the spray, shaking her head to clear the water from her eyes as she presses her body into Cat’s in the most delightful of ways, hands finding her hips as she ducks her head to brush a kiss against Cat’s lips.

It’s lazy, and Cat is sure that Kara is still half-asleep, but it soon turns heated, Kara slipping a thigh between Cat’s legs as her fingertips brush over the bruise her mouth had left over Cat’s hipbone last night.

She hisses as Kara’s touch grazes against the tender flesh, and when she increases the pressure, pain and an echo of the pleasure she’d felt last night with Kara’s teeth closing around her skin, Cat moans, hips arching against Kara’s thigh as Kara’s tongue licks at the back of her teeth.

“How long do I have?” Kara murmurs against the side of Cat’s neck when their lips part, mouth opening over Cat’s pulse point and tongue swirling across her skin in a way that makes her knees weak and her eyes roll back.

“T-ten minutes,” Cat breathes when she can open her eyes to seek out the clock on the other side of the room – she can often get carried away in the shower in the mornings (though often because she finds it so soothing, _not_ because there’s usually a hot mouth on her throat and soft hands palming her ass), and she’d added it after she’d almost been late to work for one too many mornings in a week.

“I can work with that.”

“Oh, can you?” Cat asks, voice breathier than she intends it to be as Kara’s teeth nip at the tendons of her neck before her tongue is dipping into the hollow of her throat, nails scraping deliciously down her thighs.

“Mhm,” Kara drawls as she ducks lower, catching one of Cat’s nipples between her lips and sucking, and Cat cries out, back arching from the wall as she tangles one hand in strands of damp hair.

“Cocky,” she murmurs, but it’s lost to a moan as Kara’s fingers nails drag deliberately over that bruise on her hip, her weak point and Kara knows it and god does she love her for it, trembles as Kara’s teeth and tongue tease at a straining peak.

Her heart races as Kara lowers herself to her knees, and she glances up at Cat as she’s nosing her way through damp curls with dark eyes that send a spike of heat straight to her core because oh, she’s hot as sin and she’s all _hers_ and Cat’s definitely the luckiest women alive because Kara’s mouth is wicked and god, so _talented_ , and Cat can scarcely breathe as Kara guides one of Cat’s legs over her shoulders and presses an open-mouthed kiss to her inner thigh.

Her knee quakes at the first touch of Kara’s tongue against her, licking a long stripe the length of her sex, and Kara is quick to reach out and hold her up, one hand at her hip, thumb smoothing along that damn bruise, the other under her ass and encouraging Cat to grind against her face as she swirls her tongue over Cat’s clit again and again and again.

No matter how many times they do this, Kara’s touch never fails to set a fire low in her stomach, heat pulsing through her with every swipe of Kara’s tongue. Cat’s head thuds back against the tile behind her, hands curling into Kara’s hair and nails scraping across her scalp, and when Kara moans against her Cat breathes out a curse at the vibrations it sends through her like shockwaves.

Her back arches when Kara’s tongue presses inside of her before curling around her clit, and when she sucks it into her mouth Cat’s leg really does buckle, Kara the only thing keeping her upright as she feels white hot pleasure flare within her, hips moving desperately against Kara’s face to chase her tongue.

The tile is cold at her back and her skin is cooling despite the steam that lingers in the air around them and the water droplets that still litter her skin, but Cat can’t feel the chill, not when Kara’s fingertips are leaving half-crescents on her skin, not when she’s got Cat’s clit trapped between her lips and putting her tongue to work.

She tips Cat over the edge using just her mouth, and Cat breathes out Kara’s name when she comes, her whole body trembling with the force of it, tension draining out of her with every rock of her hips against Kara’s mouth, chasing the aftershocks and leaving her completely and utterly boneless.

Kara presses one last kiss against her inner thigh before clambering to her feet, and Cat is quick to curl a hand around the back of her neck and connect their lips, moaning at the taste of herself on Kara’s tongue.

Kara’s hands wrap around her hips and pull Cat backwards with her as she steps back under the spray of the shower, and Cat shudders at the feeling of the hot water against her overheated skin, and again when Kara leans away only to splash some shower gel into her hands and run them over every inch of Cat’s body until she’s a trembling mess once again.

“Right on time,” Kara murmurs with a glance towards the clock as the last remnants of the bubbles are washing down the drain, looking so pleased with herself that Cat can’t help but smile and drop another kiss onto her lips, even as she’s pouting a little because she doesn’t have time to feel Kara come undone against her.

She’d felt it a half a dozen times last night, though, so she supposes she can’t complain too much, and she’s sure there will be plenty more opportunities to do just that in their future.

“Start getting ready and I’ll join you in a few,” Kara murmurs as she gives Cat a little push towards the shower door, sensing her reluctance to leave, and Cat nods and slips away, wrapping a fluffy towel around her body and another around her hair before she pads back out into her bedroom to begin her morning routine.

She has her hair dried and styled by the time Kara reappears – Cat swears she could spend an entire day in the shower with how long she takes in there, sometimes – clad in one of Cat’s bathrobes, her hair damp and already curling around her shoulders.

The robe is much too short on her, miles and miles of those smooth and very toned legs that Cat likes to look at so much on display, and she’s distracted for one long moment by the sight of Kara in the mirror on her vanity as she riffles through the designated drawer she already has in Cat’s dresser for a pair of clean underwear, throwing on some sweatpants and a thin shirt over the top.

Kara smirks when she notices Cat’s staring, but wisely chooses to keep her distance, disappearing down the hall to make some of the coffee that Cat is physically incapable of starting her day without.

It’s not their usual morning routine, because Kara is so often left to sleep in Cat’s bed until she awakes when Cat is already settled behind her desk in her office, but it’s nice, and Cat likes the domesticity of it, just like she does on those rare weekends they get to spend together, eating breakfast in bed with Carter curled up between them watching the cartoons that he’s so fond of.

Kara adores them too, because in some ways she is still absolutely a child, and Cat will reach for her phone until Kara plucks it away and tells her that she’s not allowed to do any work for at least one hour, and Cat glares and reaches for the book that she’s reading, instead.

She’ll often get distracted though, glancing up to watch Carter and Kara, their heads pressed close together as they whisper about their favourite characters, and she still marvels at how strong their relationship has become.

She often comes home to an empty apartment, will drop off her bag and kick of her heels and slip into something more comfortable before padding across the hall and into Kara’s studio. The overstuffed armchair has become her own, and Cat will spend some nights there working away whilst Kara and Carter do some work of their own, the room alternating between quiet periods where the only sound is Cat’s typing or the slow stroke of a paintbrush over canvas, and periods of excited chattering from the two of them that never fails to make her smile.

Carter lights up around her, in a way that Cat is so happy to see, and she sees that same light in Kara’s eyes, too, and it floods her with so much warmth that sometimes she thinks it’s a wonder that her heart doesn’t burst from the force of it.

It’s a sentiment that she never imagined she’d have – she’s certainly never felt like this before, never thought she would. She’s never been the sappy or sentimental type, save for on rare occasions with her son, but Kara…

Cat has always felt things deeply, whether it be her mother’s cutting words or her drive for success (and riding all of the highs or sinking deep into the lows that came along with it), or her love for both of her sons.

Romantic love she’d rarely felt so keenly, always overshadowed by her company or, later, Carter. It wasn’t something that she needed, wasn’t even something that she’d wanted, but Kara makes her believe in all those silly, stupid feelings that she’d used to roll her eyes or scoff at because it simply didn’t _happen_.

But she looks at Kara and her heart beats faster, she sees her with her son and knows that Kara will love Carter for the rest of her life, and the same can be said for him, and she sees a lifetime of all the things she’d thought she’d never had with a woman that is far, far too good for her but now that Cat knows what it feels like to hold Kara in her arms, there isn’t a chance in hell she’s ever letting her go.

Kara returns with a mug of steaming coffee as Cat’s putting the finishing touches to her make-up, and she catches Kara’s wrist before she can walk away again, sliding her hand up her arm until it can disappear into damp hair, tugging Kara’s head down for an open-mouthed kiss over her shoulder as a reward.

Kara hums against her mouth and bites gently at Cat’s bottom lip when she pulls away, and Cat knows that despite it being just two days, she’ll miss her and her son a lot, because the both of them brighten up her days so completely.

Kara wanders away to leave her to change, and when Cat pads barefoot into the kitchen dressed in a pencil skirt and blouse, she finds Kara at the stove with a frown of concentration on her face as she carefully flips a pancake, a bleary-eyed Carter sitting at the counter opposite with his plate already piled high as he sips at a glass of orange juice.

“What are you doing up?” Cat asks, surprised as she takes the seat next to him, Kara sliding a pancake onto the plate that’s been set out for her.

“Kara wanted me to be.” He looks at Kara a little accusingly, blinking sleepily as he rubs a hand over his forehead and pushes away the hair that’s falling into his eyes – Cat tuts when she notices how long it’s gotten, makes a mental note to schedule him an appointment to get it cut when they return to National City in the new year. “She won’t tell me why though.”

“Oh?” Cat turns towards Kara with an arched eyebrow, but Kara merely smiles sweetly at her as she ladles another helping of pancake batter into the frying pan. “How curious.”

“Just eat your breakfast,” Kara snipes at them both, back turned towards them as she concentrates on her cooking, “and all will be revealed soon.” Cat hums but obeys, because despite her general incompetence in the kitchen, Kara makes damn good pancakes – even if she can only eat one and a half to Carter’s and Kara’s five each.

Cat glances at her watch when she’s finished, but she still has another fifteen minutes before she absolutely needs to be out the door, so she disappears only briefly to gather the rest of her things and slip into a pair of killer heels before returning to the kitchen counter where Kara is now fidgeting nervously with her hands, Carter eyeing her curiously.

“What is it?” Cat asks immediately, because she’s never been one to beat around the bush and Kara looks more nervous than Cat has seen her look in probably the entire duration of their relationship thus far.

“I, um… there’s something I want to give you both, before we leave for Midvale.” Carter’s eyes light up but Kara bites down on her bottom lip, gaze flitting to where Cat stands opposite her. “I know you said no gifts, but… I didn’t buy it, so _technically_ I don’t really think it counts, and - ”

“I got you something, too,” Cat admits quietly, because despite her words to Kara, when she’d seen the delicate pendant she hadn’t quite been able to resist it (or the way she hoped that Kara’s eyes would light up upon seeing it).

“R-really?”

“Mm. And I _did_ buy it, so you’re firmly off the hook.” Kara’s smile is soft, blooming slowly until it spreads across her whole face, still one of the most beautiful things that Cat has ever seen.

“God, you guys are gross,” Carter mumbles as he glances between the two of them with his nose wrinkled – an expression he often makes around the two of them when they get too _sappy_ , as he likes to call it.

“May I remind you,” Cat murmurs, poking him affectionately in the back, “that you were advocating for the two of us to get together.”

“Yeah, but. You could be less gross.” He looks up at her with a cheeky smile, and Cat rolls her eyes and ruffles unruly curls with her hand. “Can we get presents now?” He directs that at Kara, who grins and nods.

“They’re at my place, though.” Carter is quick to scamper to his feet and take Kara’s hand, tugging her towards the front door and she just barely remembers to snatch the spare key that Cat has hanging up by her front door, Cat following in their wake and surprised to find Kara and Carter disappearing into her studio.

Within it, two of the easels are covered by a thick white sheet, and Kara stands between the two of them, wringing her hands.

“I, um, I usually paint something for my family, Alex and Eliza, this time of year. It became sort of a tradition? After my first couple of years with them, because I was just a kid and couldn’t afford to buy anything for them but I wanted to show them how grateful I was for them letting me into their lives, so.” Kara pauses, taking a deep breath and still fidgeting with her hands. “I started to paint for them. Little things at first, but then when I got better I did bigger ones. Eliza has a whole wall full back at home.” She smiles softly at the thought, and Cat can’t wait to see it, to see the evolution of Kara’s work thorough her life – to learn even more about her, in the place where she’d spent her teenage years. “And I thought that, with this being our first year… that maybe I could do the same for you guys. Because I… I kind of already…” She pauses, ducking her head and letting her hair hide her face. “I kind of already consider you guys a part of my family.”

She says it quietly, like she’s afraid of it, and Cat’s heart swells and Carter’s smile is bright as he bounds forwards to draw Kara into a crushing hug.

“You’re part of our family, too,” he whispers to her, and Kara’s arms wrap around his back and she glances at Cat, stood behind him, and she nods because oh, that’s so, so true and Kara deserves to know it, and Kara’s answering smile is so wide that it’s a wonder her cheeks don’t ache.

“Okay, so, for you Carter,” Kara continues, keeping a hand on the small of Carter’s back as she steers him towards one of the easels and curls her other hand around the sheet keeping the painting hidden from view, “I thought this would be appropriate.”

She lifts the sheet away with a flourish, and Carter lets out a gasp at what is revealed to him, and Cat finds herself marvelling at it, too.

It’s a canvas print of Supergirl, beautifully crafted and exactly like the one in the comic the two of them spend so much time on, one hand raised in the air as she flies through the air above National City, her cape billowing out behind her.

Whilst sales of the Trib still aren’t as great as Cat would like, she’s seen a slight rise in the past few weeks, and she doesn’t know if the comic is to blame but it’s certainly a talking point and has created quite the buzz, and Cat feels a flare of pride whenever she’s asked about it or catches the name in the title of an article or from someone’s mouth, proud of what her girlfriend and son have built together.

“Oh, Kara, it’s wonderful,” Carter breathes, voice awed as he looks at the canvas with wide, wide eyes, and Kara beams at the look on his face. “Can I hang it in my room, Mom?”

“Of course you can, sweetheart. You can even put it up today, if Kara doesn’t mind helping you.”

“You trust me with your walls?” Kara asks, amused smile on her mouth as Cat aims a playful glare her way at the teasing.

“Well, consider what you do for a living,” she murmurs, tilting her head and enjoying the soft look in Kara’s eyes, “I suspect you know how to hang a painting without doing much damage.”

“I _have_ had quite a bit of practice…” She trails off, and Cat rolls her eyes. “Wanna see yours?” She hums and steps closer when Kara offers Cat her hand, taking it and tangling their fingers together as Kara tugs her towards the second canvas, and Cat’s breath catches when the sheet is whisked away to reveal the print beneath.

It’s the painting Kara had done of her that day in her bedroom, Cat on her back within her covers, in one of her shirts with her head turned to one side and oh, it’s beautiful. She can see the care and the adoration painted into every single line, and the look on her face… it isn’t one she recognises, but she suspects that, if she were around a mirror whenever her eyes caught Kara’s, that would be the expression she’d see reflected back at her.

She marvels at how far they’ve come since that day, the day where Kara had summoned the courage to kiss her for the first time, and Cat had been so quick to shoot her down.

She regrets that moment a lot, because she could have saved them both some pain and hurting if she’d only been braver, if she’d only trusted her heart and trusted _Kara_ not to break it, trusted _herself_ not to break Kara.

She doesn’t feel regret when she looks at that painting, though. Instead she feels warmth, remembers the feeling of Kara’s careful, almost worshipping gaze on her skin, remembers opening up to her more than she had another person in a long, long while, because Kara was so _easy_ to talk to and Cat had already felt a connection to her, one that had blossomed and grown into something that gains strength with every single day they spend together.

“Do you like it?” Kara asks from beside her, voice quiet and when Cat tears her gaze away from the canvas she’s worrying at her bottom lip, her eyes and face nervous and, unless Cat is mistaken, a little self-conscious. “I know some people don’t like having paintings of themselves and I know that day didn’t end all that well, but I thought… It was kind of the beginning, in a way.”

“The beginning was your boxes loitering in my hallway,” Cat points out, and Kara grins.

“A painting of some boxes seemed a lot less romantic, though.”

“I love it,” Cat murmurs, because oh, she _does_ , it’s as beautiful and wonderful as the artist, painted with so much care.

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” Cat turns to brush a gentle kiss against her lips, cursing when she catches a glimpse of the time. “I should really be heading off to work. You can hang this,” she reaches to run a finger delicately along one of the edges of the canvas, “beside the one of the view from my office balcony, if you like.”

Kara had delivered it to her the day after Cat had visited her studio, and Cat had hung it immediately in her bedroom, where she could gaze at it and remember Kara spread out before and all around her.

“Okay.” Kara kisses her again, this time lingering enough for Carter to make a disgruntled noise from behind them. “I’ll call you when we get to Midvale. And you’ll let me know what time you’ll be flying in on Wednesday?”

“I will.” She’d gotten some grumbling from the crew of her private jet when she’d asked for a flight on Christmas Eve, but she pays them handsomely enough that they hadn’t been able to refuse. “Carter’s things are mostly packed.” She’d made sure she’d gone through it with him the night before. “And I’ll see you soon.”

She steps away from Kara to take her son into her arms, hugging him tightly to her chest and smiling when he hugs her back just as hard.

“You’ll behave yourself for Kara and Alex, won’t you?” She asks when she leans away, resting her hands gently on his shoulders and squeezing as he rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, Mom.”

“Call me if you forget anything and I’ll bring it along with me. I love you. And I’ll miss you.”

“We’ll miss you, too,” Carter tells her, giving her one last hug, and Cat has to force herself out of the door and doesn’t look back she knows that if she does, she’ll want to stay and leave with Carter and Kara instead.

x-x-x

“James?” Cat calls without looking up from the tablet in her hands, rapidly typing an email as she strides into his office. “Do you have the – oh, Lucy.” Cat glances up to find her art director missing, but Lucy Lane perched in one of the seats opposite his desk, empty takeout cartons sitting on-top of it. “Hi.”

“Hey, Cat.” Her smile is warm as she looks up at her, though her eyes are tired. “You alright?”

“Not too bad.” The past two days have been hellish, as they always are at this time of year as she loses various staff members for days at a time whilst they spend time with their families, but this year she doesn’t mind it half as much as she usually does, because it keeps her busy.

Her apartment is as cold and lonely as it always is without Carter, and the loneliness echoes so much more when Cat’s pillows and bedsheets smell of Kara’s perfume, an extra toothbrush in her bathroom and more of Kara’s belongings strewn across her home.

The pair of them have called her every day, and Cat has been sent several photographs of Carter to get her through the many hours she’s spent behind her desk, saddled with paperwork and proofs and everything else under the sun.

“Excited to get out of here?”

“Can’t wait,” she murmurs with a small smile, because she has just two more things to do and then she can head home and get her things, drive to the airport and arrive in Midvale before it got too late.

Carter will be up late regardless – Christmas is his favourite holiday, and Cat often lets him stay up past midnight (if he can keep his eyes open for that long), the pair of them watching Christmas movies, Carter sipping hot cocoa and Cat eggnog.

He’d stopped believing in Santa Claus when he was just seven years old, and ever since, Cat gives him a single present to open at the stroke of midnight, before herding him off to bed in his Christmas pyjamas.

He used to curl up in the bed beside her, where Cat could lie and watch him sleep, smoothing the hair from his forehead and marvelling at how perfect he was, her angel of a son and the greatest gift she could have ever received.

Kara had promised that there would be cocoa and eggnog waiting for her tonight, that they would integrate Grant and Danvers’ traditions alike because she wanted a dozen more years like it.

“James is just down in printing, getting those spreads for you,” Lucy explains when Cat casts her eyes around the office, looking for a hint of where he might be.

“I’m sorry for stealing your fiancé on Christmas Eve,” Cat replies, because it is the holidays, after all, and she knows that she and James don’t get to spend a great deal of time together whilst they’re working in different cities.

She supposes a part of that is her fault, too, because she’d been the one to present him with an outstanding job offer when she’d heard the rumours of him growing tired of the Daily Planet.

“It’s all good,” Lucy shrugs, reclining further back into her chair. “I only got here about an hour ago, and I don’t think James would rather be anywhere else. He loves this job.”

“Glad to hear it.” He really is an excellent acquisition to her company. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow? Spending it with family?”

“No, we’re having a quiet one this year. James’ parents are out of the country, I lost my mother a few years ago, and my father… well.” Lucy’s lips downturn into a grimace. “He doesn’t exactly approve of James.” Cat raises an eyebrow, because she finds it hard to believe that – she’s seen the two of them together, and they’re a perfect fit. “And I could do without the judgement at what’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.”

“I know the feeling,” Cat offers, because her own mother will never approve her relationship with Kara, and whilst it’s not something that she needs – or even wants, anymore – it still stings, sometimes, when she sees how accepting Eliza is of her and Kara, sees the easy affection between the two of them, how _supportive_ Eliza is of her daughter.

It makes her ache for all of the things she’d never had.

Katherine had never been warm and had never supported Cat unless it was in finding herself a suitable husband, had never been _proud_ of her, had never been Cat’s confidant or the person she could always go to for advice or comfort, no matter how badly she’d messed things up.

If she and Kara get the life together that Cat wants, then she’ll never be there with them on their wedding day to give her daughter away, and Cat wonders if Lucy is struggling with the same issues she’s faced her entire life – along with being overshadowed by an obnoxious, overachieving sister.

“Kara’s told me all about your Mom.” Lucy’s lips curve into a humourless smile. “Sounds like you have it a lot worse than me.”

“There’s nothing easy about unsupportive parents,” Cat replies quietly. “I don’t think it really ranks on a scale.”

“True. At least I know I’ll raise mine differently. I wanna be a Mom like you.” She glances up at Cat with an almost shy smile. “Carter’s a great kid. And it amazes me how you managed to raise him and build this.” She gestures around them with both hands. “You’re a living legend, Cat Grant. Teach me your ways.”

“I had a lot of help,” Cat replies with a small laugh – Lucy is looking up at her with bright eyes and it’s the first time the two of them have ever spoken without Kara nearby, and it strikes Cat that maybe Kara’s friends can become hers, too.

She doesn’t really _do_ friends – she has her son and her company and god, she scarcely has time for anything else. She has a dozen and more people that she’ll have lunch with whenever they’re in town, a dozen celebrities that she knows well enough to be able to name-drop whenever she can, many acquaintances that she doesn’t completely hate spending time with, but friends?

There had been some, back in boarding school, but they’d all moved on and lost touch and the same had happened after college. Lois had probably been her first true friend, but then that had turned into more and ended in flames and Cat had wondered what the point of it all was, anyway – she didn’t need anyone, she’d told herself that a lot in the months after the break-up, so why should she waste time and effort on others when she could be spending it working, instead?

But sometimes it was lonely and she craved someone to call up to chat about silly, inconsequential things and not just work, not those conversations she has with some of the people she keeps in touch with that almost remind her of her mother’s circle of friends, constantly trying to one-up her.

With Kara, she’d gotten that. She had someone to curl up and drink a glass of wine with at the end of the day, someone who would let her talk about her son and her past and who would tell Cat everything she could ever want to know about her in return, and it was so _refreshing_ and Cat wonders if she could have that with the other people in Kara’s life, too.

“And maybe I’ll give you some advice about balancing your working life with your home life one day – even though it’s advice I don’t take myself, sometimes.” She’s been making an effort, with Kara, because she’s worth it, but it’s still not always easy for her to leave her work at the office. “But right now, here comes your fiancé,” she continues, nodding towards the open office door that allows them both to see James strolling towards them, “who has officially done all I require of him for the night, and you two should go and have a wonderful night together.”

“Careful, Cat,” James teases as he catches her last few words, eyes sparkling as he hands her the prints she’d been after, “you don’t want anyone else overhearing you saying something like that. They might get the wrong idea.”

“Like believing that I actually have a heart?” Cat asks, because she knows full well what rumours are whispered about her in the bullpen all day every day, but especially when she has a particularly bad one. James just chuckles and Cat shakes her head, shooing him away from his desk when he goes to sit behind it. “No more work for today, Olsen, I mean it.”

“Alright, alright.” He holds his hands up in surrender, logging off his computer before beginning to gather up his things. “As long as you do, too.”

“I assure you, I’m planning on it.” She’s already texting her driver to be ready to pick her up in a few minutes time. “You two have a good night.”

“We will.” Lucy surprises her by drawing her into a hug. “Merry Christmas, Cat.” She echoes it back to the both of them before turning on her heel and returning to her own office, getting the last of her affairs in order before letting out a slow sigh, the stress of the week beginning to ease as she slings her purse over her shoulder and makes her way to her elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor with a flourish she reserves for only the best of days.

In a few short hours she’ll be seeing her son again, will be surrounded by the warmth of Kara’s family and back in her arms once more, and perhaps that is the greatest gift of all.

x-x-x

Kara and Carter are there to greet her at the airport with wide smiles, and Cat is drawn into a hug from the both of them so tight that for a second she loses the ability to breathe.

Around her other people are being reunited with their loved ones, but Cat only has eyes for the two in-front of her. Carter’s cheeks are flushed and his eyes bright, and he chatters excitedly about all of the things that he’s gotten up to since they last saw one another as Kara slots her fingers through Cat’s, taking her suitcase in her other hand and tugging Cat towards the exit.

Kara’s wearing a ridiculously dorky knitted Christmas sweater, a garish shade of green that only Kara Danvers would ever be able to pull off, the snowman printed on the front of it complete with a hat with a bobble on the end of it, and Cat eyes the sweater with some disbelief as Kara loads up the trunk of Alex’s car with Cat’s luggage, Carter already slipping into the backseat and granting them a brief moment of privacy.

“What?” Kara asks, noticing the direction of Cat’s gaze as she slams the trunk closed and leans one hip back against it, hands disappearing into the back pockets of her sinfully tight black jeans. “Don’t you like it?”

“It’s… different.” Kara’s lips twitch at Cat’s dry words. “I suppose with your sunny personality, I should have expected it.” She reaches out to tug at the bobble on the hat experimentally, flattening her hand over Kara’s chest when she takes a step closer and reaches for Cat’s hips.

“Just wait until you see what I’ve got on underneath it,” she breathes into Cat’s ear, before catching Cat’s chin between two fingers and kissing her soundly, making her groan and fist her hand in the woollen material to hold Kara close. “I missed you,” Kara murmurs when their lips part, though she stays close enough for them to brush again at her words. “So much.”

“I missed you, too.” She leans up on her tiptoes for one last kiss before leaning back, because the air is cold and she’d stuffed her jacket into her bag before she’d gotten off the plane. Kara rubs her hands over Cat’s arms before stepping around her to slip into the car, Cat settling into the passenger seat as Carter picks up his storytelling with little pause for breath.

Cat tangles her fingers with Kara’s as they leave the parking lot, resting their joined hands on Kara’s thigh as she turns towards Carter in the backseat, smiling softly when he begins to point out various landmarks as they pass them.

“I’ll give you a proper tour next week,” Kara tells her as Cat squints out of the window towards where Carter’s just told her Kara’s old high school is located. “In the light.”

“I’d like that,” she replies softly, because Kara fascinates her, is so important to her, and whilst she’s here surrounded by so much of Kara’s history, she wants to learn as much about her as she possibly can.

She wants to see the room Kara had grown up in, wants to see endless photographs (she’d shown Kara some of Carter’s when she’d been over a few weeks ago, and the look of delight on her face when she’d seen Cat circa two thousand and three had resulted in Cat showing Kara a few from earlier in her life, too), wants to see the school she’d spent so much of her time in and all the other places she’d used to frequent, wants to absorb everything she possibly can about this woman who’s come to mean the absolute world to her.

“The house is really cool, Mom, it’s right on the beach.”

“Not as cool as your beach house,” Kara points out with a small smile. “The views are much less impressive.”

“I’m sure it’s more homely.” Cat’s never been very good at that – she’s too clean and she likes things to be ordered, and her housekeeper does an incredible job of keeping everything tidy, despite Cat living with a teenager.

“It is! And Kara’s old room is really cool.” Carter has Kara’s old bed, and Alex her own, with Cat and Kara staying in the guest room Eliza had had added to the house after her daughters had moved out for whenever they came home to visit. “It has glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, just like mine does.”

“The constellations aren’t quite as correct, though,” Kara replies with a grin, and Cat remembers the look of glee on her face when she’d discovered that Cat was a bit of a space buff, had sketched the constellations out on Carter’s ceiling with his help and created a map of the stars.

“But it’s like being at home.” Kara’s grin turns into a warm smile at Carter’s words, because both she and Cat had been a little concerned that taking him away from National City, especially without Cat there for the first couple of days, might have an effect on him, but Cat is relieved to see that that isn’t the case, and she’s probably going to have a difficult time convincing him to come back home.

“Here we are,” Kara murmurs as she turns onto a dirt track, and Cat can see lights ahead of them, bright flares in the otherwise dark of the night, hidden behind windows and leaving the rest of the house shrouded in shadow.

Kara pulls up beside another car, and Cat is relieved to see that there’s only one, presumably belonging to Eliza – she isn’t sure she’s equipped to deal with Lois Lane and her farm boy husband, not after a hellish week and several hours stuck on a plane, and she’d been thankful when Kara had informed Cat that her cousin and his wife would be staying at a motel for the week, instead of in the house.

Cat had felt a flash of guilt about it, though, because she and Carter had snatched up the two spare beds in the Danvers’ home and Clark and Lois were family, but Kara had shaken her head and looked at her with soft eyes and told Cat that she and Carter were family, too, and she wanted them nearby.

The front door swings open as they exit the car, Cat yawning as she goes to help Kara with her bags, Carter bounding ahead of them and disappearing through the door, skipping past Eliza and Alex who wait to greet them.

“It’s so nice to see you again, Cat,” Eliza murmurs into Cat’s ear as she pulls her into a hug – surprised and sleepy, Cat just barely remember to hug the other woman back, flooded with adoration for how willing Eliza is to welcome Cat into her daughter’s life.

She’ll never get this kind of warm support from her own mother, but this from Eliza is more than Cat ever thought she or Carter would have.

“Come in, come in, you must be exhausted,” Eliza continues when she releases Cat, ushering her over the threshold and into the house, and Cat can hear the roar of an open fire and feels the warmth seep into her skin and a part of her almost feels like she’s coming home. “I’ll let Kara give you the grand tour while I heat up some eggnog for you.”

“Thank you.” Alex waves before disappearing down the hall in search of Carter, and Kara shuts the door quietly behind them before taking Cat’s hand and leading her up the staircase in-front of them. “Is your bedroom our first stop?” Cat teases as she follows in Kara’s wake, taking in the photographs that adjourn the wall of the staircase with avid interest and oh, teenage Kara was every bit as nerdy and adorable as Cat had imagined. “Kara Danvers, I’m shocked.”

“ _Our_ bedroom, for the week,” Kara points out, and the smirk she shoots Cat over her shoulder makes her knees week. “And nothing should shock you when it comes to me, anymore.”

“Mm, true.” Kara leads her to the end of the hall, into a sparsely decorated room that’s clearly meant for guests, depositing Cat’s bag at the bottom of the bed. The book Cat has seen Kara reading the past few weeks sits on one of the bedside tables, a few of her other personal belongings strewn across the room because no matter how many times Cat tells her, she doesn’t seem capable of cleaning up after herself, sometimes, but it’s the painting hung up on the wall that is the most telling of Kara’s presence here, her work unmistakable and as beautiful as ever.

“There are loads more in the attic,” Kara says when she notices what holds Cat’s interest. “I’m pretty sure Eliza never threw a piece of mine away, even if it was terrible.”

“I’d like to see them, if you’ll let me.”

“Of course.” Kara draws her close and into a soft kiss, sweet enough that it makes Cat’s chest ache, her hands resting lightly on Kara’s shoulders as Kara palms at her waist. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she murmurs, pressing her forehead to Cat’s and breathing her in.

“I’m glad you wanted me here.”

“Are you kidding?” Cat opens her eyes to find those baby blues she loves so much looking at her with adoration. “I wouldn’t have you anywhere else. Best Christmas present ever.” She’s so damn _earnest_ , and Cat’s heart thuds faster in her chest as she tugs Kara down for another long kiss. “Mm, not that I don’t love this,” she breathes against Cat’s mouth when they part, running her hands down over her hips, “but they’re probably going to wonder where we are if we don’t go back downstairs soon.”

“True,” Cat murmurs, leaning away to take Kara’s hand and letting her drag her back towards the door. “Wouldn’t want Eliza thinking I’m defiling her foster daughter behind closed doors.”

“I think it’s a little late for that,” Kara replies with a lopsided smirk. “You’ve already defiled me more ways than I can count.”

“Yes, but nobody _else_ knows that,” Cat points out, and Kara grins her response as she leads Cat down the hall. “Which is your old bedroom?” Cat asks as they go, pausing briefly to take in the gorgeous scenery that’s splashed across white walls in the form of small paintings, Kara’s initials neatly inked into the corner of every one.

“This one.” Kara nudges the door open with her shoulder and steps aside for Cat to take the room in. The stars glow a faint shade of green on the ceiling, a twin bed against either wall, and out of the large bay window Cat can just about see the roiling waves of the dark sea, glittering in the moonlight over the edge of the cliff the house is situated on.

“I can guess where you spent most of your sleepless nights,” Cat murmurs as she crosses over to the window for a better look, and Kara smiles as she steps up beside her, fond eyes taking in the view.

“I used to sneak out onto the roof, sometimes. I’d drag Alex with me some nights and we’d lie on our backs looking up at the stars. She was the one who taught me the constellations. When I first got here, I didn’t really sleep.” She keeps her eyes fixed firmly out of the window as she talks, and Cat wonders if she’s drowning in the memories of her first few months in this house, can scarcely imagine how difficult that must have been for her. “But I always felt better when I looked up at the stars. Cause I thought it might mean that my parents were up there, looking down on me. Like they never really left.” Cat reaches for Kara’s hand but is pulled into the warm circle of her arms instead, Kara’s body solid at her back as her arms slide around Cat’s waist to hold her close, chin settling on-top of her head.

“Eliza freaked out when she found out about it, said it was too dangerous, and Alex argued because it was the only thing that made me feel better. The next day Eliza went to the store to buy as many packs of glow-in-the-dark stars she could get her hands on, came back here and hopped up on her step-ladder to lay them on the ceiling.”

Cat smiles at the story, able to imagine it perfectly – Eliza’s panic and worry on discovering her daughters up on the roof, Alex’s indignation as she’d argued, and the sure to be fierce look of determination on Eliza’s face as she’d marched up that ladder to put the stars into the sky.

Kara must have a thousand stories like it, of both Eliza’s and her sister’s kindness, their warmth and their acceptance of her with open arms, surrounding her in love to ease the ache of the things that she’d lost.

Cat’s only been in this house for less than half an hour, but she can already sense the happy memories of years gone by, the love that saturates the walls and bleeds into the hearts of those who call it home, and Cat thinks she could get used to escaping from the city for a few precious days to this house by the beach, calmer and quieter and more homely than her own.

“I slept better after that,” Kara continues quietly, her breath stirring Cat’s hair as she presses her lips to the top if her head. “Though we’d still sneak out into the roof when we thought we wouldn’t get caught.”

“Kara Danvers, rebel extraordinaire,” Cat says with a smile, and Kara’s soft laughter floods her with warmth. “Nice to see you got started early.”

“I’m not a rebel.”

“You, who slipped your fingers up my dress in the middle of crowded theatre just to see if you could make me come without anyone noticing, are not a rebel?” She turns in Kara’s arm to catch her proud smirk, rolls her eyes and leans up on her tiptoes to kiss it away. “Come on, gorgeous. You have a family to spend time with.”

“I’ve spent the past few days with them,” Kara points out as Cat tangles their fingers and walks them back out into the hall.

“Wow,” Alex mutters dryly as she emerges from what must be the upstairs bathroom, a wry smile on her face as she shakes her head at her sister in mock disapproval, “it’s nice to know how much we mean to you, Kara, it really is.”

“Oh, shut up.” Kara lets go of Cat in favour of knocking into Alex with her shoulder, the elder Danvers sister not budging an inch. “You know I love you, really. And I see you like, _all_ the time.”

“You see Cat all the time, too!”

“Yeah, but she’s much prettier to look at.” Kara grins as Alex lunges for her and tries to get her in a headlock, and Cat backs wisely out of the way – she’s been witness to enough Danvers brawls to know when is best to steer clear – and their laughter soon brings a curious Eliza and Carter up the stairs to see what all the fuss is about.

“Mom, Kara’s bored of spending time with us already,” Alex tells Eliza as they separate, and Kara gives a dramatic roll of her eyes that has both Cat’s and Eliza’s lips pressing together to hide a smile.

“I never _said_ that.”

“Just that you’d rather be with Cat, instead.”

“Yeah, because she’s not mean to me.” Kara hides her pout in Cat’s hair, Cat chuckling quietly as Carter comes into her other side to throw his arms around her waist, hugging Kara tightly, too. Cat glances up just in time to see Eliza snap a picture of the three of them on her phone, a fond look in her eyes that Cat knows will be reflected in her own in the photograph.

“Now, if the fighting’s over,” Eliza says with a stern look towards her daughters, “then there’s a Christmas movie set up ready for us all downstairs. I _believe_ it’s Carter’s favourite, and he and Cat watch it every year.”

Cat smiles softly, touched by the gesture – though she supposes she shouldn’t be, considering how wonderful every member of this family has been to her, every day since they’d first met.

Eliza turns and wanders back down the stairs, Carter and Alex following quickly in their wake, and Cat and Kara trailing behind them.

Cat allows herself to take in the house as they descend to the ground floor, no longer distracted by warm welcomes and Kara’s sunny smiles. It’s all exposed wooden beams and gleaming wooden floors covered by thick rugs to stave off the chill in the air, rustic and absolutely nothing like Cat has ever really set foot in before, but completely what she expected.

She almost pauses at the many photographs they pass, because Kara and Alex as pouty teenagers is something she absolutely needs to commit to her memory for the rest of their life, but she tells herself there will be time for that later.

She has a grand total of five days, spread out across the week, here at the Danvers’ home, and Cat doesn’t intend to let a minute of them go to waste.

For now, there’s a fire crackling in the hearth in the living room Kara leads her too, two huge couches pointing towards the TV where the opening credits of _The Grinch_ are ready to go, the coffee table in-front of them filled with various snacks and drinks.

Cat helps herself to a mug of eggnog as she settles down beside her son and Kara curls up next to her, resting her head on Kara’s shoulder and making a face as the woollen material scratches at her cheek.

She’ll deal with it, though, because Kara is warm against her, a hand snaking over her shoulders to pull her close and draw patterns against her skin. Carter snuggles up to her other side with a blanket thrown over his knees, and when he looks towards her, his eyes bright and his smile wide, happier than Cat has perhaps ever seen him, Cat thinks that the both of them have found their home, here at Kara’s side.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we have it guys, the end of the road. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who's supported this story, whether it be with comments or kudos or messages or fic recs, I appreciate it so, so much and the love for this one has really blown me away. 
> 
> I wanna thank residentgeekmonkey once again, for all the help she's given me with this story - I don't think it'd be the same without your input (and your wonderful commentaries). 
> 
> I don't have another multi-chapter in the works right now but I am almost always filling prompts over on tumblr (where I am also ofendlesswonder) if you wanna hit me up over there. 
> 
> Thank you all again, and I hope you all enjoy the ending just as much as everything else so far :)

Kara and Alex come back from the grocery store on New Year’s Eve with an armful of bags each, Kara barely managing to fumble open the front door using her elbow and push it wide enough to step through with her hip, the rush of warmth from the air inside making her skin tingle as she adjust to the temperature.

She kicks off her boots as Alex presses the door closed, and smiles when she hears the sound of her girlfriend’s laughter echoing from the room beyond – she’d been reunited with Cat after a four day break in which she’d returned to CatCo just that morning, and not even her best pout and puppy dog eyes had gotten her out of leaving Cat’s side to go to the store.

Christmas last week had been a dream – she’d woken up with Cat in her arms and an excitable Carter practically bouncing on the bed with joy, and it was the first time in years since there had been a child in the house on Christmas Day and it had made the whole day so much _brighter_.

Kara had managed to wrangle Cat into a Christmas jumper (and Alex, cackling as Cat had stomped down the stairs grumbling about Kara making this up to her at a later date, had promptly snapped a picture and informed Cat that she would use it as leverage should Cat ever bring up any of the embarrassing baby photos scattered around the house), and they’d exchanged presents and eaten dinner and laughed and played games as a family (Cat and Lois had gotten along, much to Kara’s relief – though she’d spent the entire day with bated breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop and one of them to snap something acerbic to the other), and all in all, Kara thinks that it’s been one of the best holidays she’s ever had.

She and Carter have spent more time together than ever before, and she falls more in love with him with every passing second, and she knows the same can be said for both Eliza and Alex.

And _both_ her sister and her mother are getting along swimmingly with Cat, too (Kara swears that the next time Eliza is in National City, she’ll be spending more time with Cat rather than Kara, because the two of them get along like a house on fire and Kara has come downstairs on several occasions to find the two of them swapping stories over coffee and chuckling like old friends), and Kara doesn’t think she’s ever felt this happy in her life.

“Hey there, little cousin.” Kara grins at the sound of Clark’s voice, peering over the top of her brown paper bags to see his smiling face, sighing out a thanks when he relieves her of one of the bags she’s about to drop.

“Clark! You’re back.” He and Lois, too restless for ‘small town life’, as they liked to call it, now that they’re both hotshot journalists for the Daily Planet, had disappeared for a few days on a mini road trip around the nearby towns.

“We are. Got in about an hour ago.” Kara follows him to the kitchen, where Alex has already set down her bags and is stretching her arms over her head as Eliza hurries to begin packing them away, Carter sitting at the kitchen island and doodling idly in a notebook.

Kara’s head turns towards the living room as she hears another peal of laughter, and then she frowns when she glances around the room and does a mental count of the house’s occupants, because Cat doesn’t sound like she’s alone and the only person she could possibly be with is –

“It’s like the apocalypse,” Clark whispers conspiratorially as the next sound they hear is definitely the sound Lois’ voice, following the direction of Kara’s gaze. “You don’t want to go in there.” He looks in that moment so much like the sixteen year old cousin that had helped her get up to mischief without either of their parents knowing about it that it makes her smile. “They’ve been at each other’s throats for _years_ and now they’re sharing each other’s life stories.” He gives a wry shake of his head. “It’s _scary_.”

“I mean, I know they had a little chat the other day, but this is… unanticipated.”

Kara had wandered out onto the deck on Christmas Day when she’d found Cat missing after she’d woken up from her unscheduled mid-afternoon nap, almost comatose from the amount of food she’d stuffed down, to find her on the porch swing with Lois sat beside her and a contemplative look on her face.

Cat had seen Kara’s worried eyes behind the glass door and smiled softly, shaking her head slightly when Kara had mouthed ‘do you need rescuing?’, and when Kara had asked Cat about it later she’d just said that they were going to try and patch things up, in the holiday spirit.

They’d been civil to one another for the rest of the time they’d spent together, but this? This is unexpected, though Kara thinks she could grow to love it – Cat needs more friends in her profession, more people to confide in because Kara knows that until recently, she hadn’t really _had_ anyone to talk to.

And Cat and Lois? They’re more similar than she thinks either one of them will ever admit.

“And _weird_ ,” Clark says again, making a face that has Kara’s grin widens further. “They’re acting like old friends.” He squints towards the living room as though that will allow him to see inside it.

“Well, I guess they kind of are. Or, well,” Kara frowns, “were, I guess.” She’s still getting used to the history that Cat and Lois share, if she’s being honest with herself – it’s _odd_ to find out that her girlfriend has slept with someone she’s known for almost half her life. “Either way it’s weird.”

“Agreed,” Clark says with an easy smile.

“You mean cause they used to date?” Carter pipes up from the island, without glancing up from the paper in-front of him and causing both Kara and Clark to whip around to face him. “What?” He asks, looking up to see them both staring.

“You know about that?” Kara asks, and Carter rolls his eyes in a gesture that is so unbelievably _Cat_ that it makes her smile.

“Of course I do, Kara, you know my Mom. She doesn’t believe in lying or hiding the truth, so when I heard her muttering something about Lois winning a Pulitzer I asked her why she was so upset about it when she’s always said that bringing another woman down to elevate yourself is wrong. I asked her why Lois was different, and she told me.” He lifts one shoulder up in a half-shrug. “She’s always honest with me.”

Kara wonders if that’s because of the way Cat was raised, wonders what dark secrets Katherine Grant had in her closest that she didn’t want Cat to see.

“But you’re right, it _is_ weird. She once told me if she was ever in a room with Lois Lane again, she was going to push her out the nearest window like Perry White should have done, rather than his chair.”

“That does sound like Cat,” Kara replies with a wide smile, and Clark chuckles quietly beside her, blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

Kara decides to traipse into the lion’s den and hope she doesn’t end up in the middle of an argument if the tables turn, because she’d only managed to snatch an hour with Cat before Eliza had shooed her away and she’s _missed_ her.

Which is maybe a little clingy and needy but god, she doesn’t care, because she’s pretty sure that Cat feels the same way and the ache that settles in her chest whenever she watches Cat walk away from her is only lifted whenever Cat steps back into her arms again.

“Hey,” she murmurs as she catches sight of Cat, curled up on one couch and Lois sprawled on the other, and the bottle of wine open on the coffee table between them, half-empty along with the glasses clutched in their hands, goes a little way towards explaining their jolly attitudes.

“Hey, Kara.” Lois rises from the couch to pull her into a hug, but Cat doesn’t move until Kara throws herself down beside her, leaning back into her arms and turning her head to press a brief kiss to her lips. “You’re just in time to hear me tell Cat about how I won that Pulitzer that she hates me for so much.”

“Oh, please.” Cat rolls her eyes, leaning further back into Kara and she’s relieved to find that there is little tension in the set of Cat’s shoulders, that she’s relaxed as anything despite Lois’ teasing. “That’s not the only reason I hate you. There’s a whole list.” Lois laughs, delighted, her eyes sparkling with glee, and Kara shakes her head and wonders if maybe insults is just how the two of them communicate – if they’ve really been secret friends all these years, beneath that seething exterior.

“Yeah, but it’s a sore point.”

“ _I_ have a media empire. _You_ have one prize and a dingy office.”

“It is not _dingy_.”

“It is compared to the entire CatCo building, which I own.” Cat smiles sweetly, and Lois rolls her eyes.

“I’ve noticed, seeing as you have your name branded on the side of it in massive letters. Kinda hard to miss.” Cat’s smile turns proud and more than a little smug, and Lois rolls her eyes again, Kara just looking between the two of them like she’s watching a tennis match. “Then again, you always were vain.”

“Oh, and you’re not?” Cat arches an eyebrow, and Lois just smirks. “At least you don’t deny it.”

“Because we both know it’s true.” Cat hums to agree, before they’re interrupted by the sound of Eliza yelling Cat’s name from the kitchen, asking if she’ll help her with dinner. “Off to bond with the in-law?” Lois teases as Cat gives Kara one last kiss before rising fluidly to her feet, flipping Lois the bird as she leaves the room and making the other woman cackle loudly.

“You guys are…” Kara trials off as she pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on them, searching for the right word. “Entertaining.”

“That’s one word for it,” Clark says as he slouches into the room and perches beside his wife. “I got kicked out of the kitchen. I started eating the food.”

“That’s why I’m banned, too.” They share sympathetic looks as Lois shakes her head.

“You two and your appetites, I swear to God. It’s like feeding an army whenever you’re both in the same place at the same time.” Lois’ eyes are fond, though, as she glances between the two of them, and Kara is glad that her cousin found someone so good-natured and kind as Lois, who’s always treated Kara warmly. “It was cute at first, but now…” She trails off with another shake of her head, and Clark grins, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“You know you wouldn’t have us any other way.”

“I know.” Lois’ smile is warm and Kara grins back, doesn’t let it fade even when Lois’ gaze turns contemplative. “I’m glad you and Cat managed to make it work, Kara.” Kara wonders if there’s a _but_ on the end of that sentence, another warning like the ones she’d issued at the gala where her eyes had been shrewd and her smile tight with concern, but there’s only open honesty looking back at Kara now, Clark nodding in agreement. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you like this, and Cat… well, I have _never_ seen her like this. You look good on each other. And I’m sorry I tried to interfere.”

“It’s okay,” Kara shrugs, “you were just trying to look out for me, I get it. But thank you.” Her voice is soft, and she _means_ it, because Clark and Lois might not be as close to Kara as Eliza and Alex are now, but they still matter, and it’d suck if family drama started to drive a wedge between them – having Cat and Lois in the same room had been Kara’s biggest fear for the holiday, and it’s relief that those fears haven’t been realised. “I appreciate it, and she’ll never say it but I imagine Cat would, too.”

“I doubt that, after I told her I’d ruin her if she broke your heart.” Lois’ smile is wolfish, and Kara groans because she’d thought that after talking Alex down, the familial threats would _stop_. “I don’t think she will, though, Kara, she really likes you.”

“Yeah, I really like her, too.” She fiddles with her hands as she says it, because she’s still not admitted to Cat just how _much_ she likes her, but she’s been wondering if tonight, under a dark sky on a beach illuminated only by the fading moonlight and the twinkle of the stars high above, seeing in the first of what she hopes will be many new years with Cat by her side, will be the perfect opportunity.

She feels ill whenever she thinks about it, though, because what if Cat doesn’t feel the same way? What if she doesn’t say it back, thinks it’s too soon, and Kara ruins the good thing they’ve had going on for the past few months by making it too serious?

She’s always moved fast when it comes to relationships, always falls hard and fast and with Cat it’s even more dizzying than it has ever been before, and even though all of her early fears have been assuaged the longer they’ve spent together, deep down, there’s still a part of that’s terrified that she’s going to somehow mess it all up.

“I mean she _really_ likes you,” Lois emphasises, and when Kara’s gaze darts up to meet Lois’ eyes, she’s looking at her meaningfully like she knows exactly what’s on Kara’s mind, and it’s easy to see how she became such an excellent reporter. “Okay?” Kara nods, though she still feels like her knees might not support her when she stands, like she might not be able to eat the food that’s being prepared in the kitchen because her stomach is roiling like the crashing waves outside.

“I’m gonna go and see how they’re getting along in the kitchen,” she announces, hauling herself to her feet as both Lois and her cousin nod, padding quietly into the other room and leaning in the doorframe for a moment, taking in the sight of Cat and Eliza standing each with a hip resting against the kitchen counter, both holding a glass of wine in one hand and stirring a pan with the other, Alex leaning against the counter opposite and the three of them laughing about something.

Knowing their recent topics of conversation, it’s probably another embarrassing story from her childhood.

“Need any help?” She asks as she steps further into the room, edging towards the fridge and snatching up a bottle of water from within it.

“Pretty sure the last time you helped out in here you left that char mark over there.” Alex nods towards where Cat is standing, to the black mark on one of the cupboards as Kara makes a face.

“Yes, we’ll save the fire for outside when we’re on the beach,” Eliza adds, and Kara huffs out a sigh and folds her arms across her chest, trying not to smile at the fond look in Cat’s eyes as she glances her way.

“I am not _that_ bad,” she defends.

“Sometimes you are, sweetheart,” Eliza tells her, not unkindly, but Kara still heaves a sigh and shakes her head in mock disapproval.

“Where’s Carter? At least _he_ appreciates me and won’t mock my kitchen skills.”

“I appreciate you,” Cat protests, and when Eliza and Alex aren’t looking she shoots Kara a sinful smirk as her eyes trace over Kara’s chest and collarbones, exposed somewhat by the shirt she’s wearing, that makes her stomach flip and her eyes widen. “He’s out on the deck. He looked… he looked like something might be on his mind.” Cat worries at her bottom lip in a rare gesture of anxiety, and Kara can tell just by looking at her that she’s bothered by the fact that he hasn’t come to her about it.

“I’ll go see if he wants to talk.”

“There’s some cocoa if you want to take him some,” Eliza offers, and Kara smiles her thanks as Cat shoots them both a grateful look, grabbing a mug and making her way outside after ducking down to give Cat a kiss.

Carter sits on the porch swing outside with a sketchbook settled over his knees, and Kara waits until he glances up before she approaches, in-case he doesn’t want be disturbed.

“Hey, buddy, mind if I join you?” He shakes his head, and Kara smiles warmly, offering him the mug, steam curling up from the rim and into the cool night air, as she settles herself down beside him. “I used to spend hours out here, sketching the waves.”

It’s a gorgeous view, and she’d often lose track of time, the sea breeze in her hair and the screeching of seagulls high above, Alex sometimes lying on the deck in-front of her surrounded by textbooks as she did her homework, the sun beating down on them both.

“It’s pretty,” Carter offers as he takes a sip of the cocoa, but Kara notes that he’s not sketching anything new, just tracing over the lines from one of his old Supergirl drawings.

“Everything okay?”

“Did my Mom send you out here to talk to me?” Carter asks, peering up at Kara with those piercing green eyes that remind her so much of Cat, unruly curls framing his face and Kara never thought she could look at another person, a _child_ , and feel such unconditional love.

“No, I came cause they were bullying me in the kitchen and you’re more fun than they are,” she tells him, and he smiles softly though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “But your Mom is a little worried about you. And I am, too.” He bites delicately at his bottom lip, avoiding Kara’s gaze like he’s prone to do when he’s struggling with something particularly difficult. “But you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, especially to me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He doesn’t look at her directly as he says it, still facing out towards the sea, though he does glance at Kara out of the corner of his eye.

“Well, you’ve only known me for a few months,” Kara points out, drumming her fingers on her thigh as she feels restless energy swirl within her. “You’re probably a lot more comfortable talking to your Mom than you are to me.”

“That’s not true,” he says, voice wavering, after a few minutes of comfortable silence. “I… I trust you, Kara. And you’re easy to talk to. And less scary than my Mom, sometimes.” He shoots her a grin, more genuine than his earlier smile, and Kara chuckles quietly. “And it’s not that I don’t _want_ to talk about it, I just… I don’t know how.”

“Okay. That’s okay, too. You know your Mom and I would never pressure you about it, right?”

“I like that,” Carter says quietly, gaze fixed firmly on his hands, knotted in his lap. “’Your Mom and I’. It makes us sound like a family.”

“Yeah?” Her throat feels tight, and when Carter raises his head just long enough to meet her gaze and nod, she smiles so wide her cheeks hurt. “You’d like that? If we were a family?”

“I already kind of think of you like that.”

“Come here.” She tugs him close and pulls him into a tight hug, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of his favourite shampoo and Cat’s laundry detergent. “I love you, Carter, you know that right?”

“I love you too,” he mumbles, face pressed into Kara’s shoulder, and she hugs him even tighter, until he’s gasping for breath and squirming away, and she’s quick to blink away the tears that had sprung into her eyes upon hearing the quiet words.

He leans back into her side soon enough, cheek on her shoulder and her arm around his back, the both of them staring off into the distance, and Kara could spend a night like this, if she’s being honest, the night silent around them aside from the noise of the waves on the sand not too far away from where they sit.

“When someone invites you somewhere, how do you know if it’s a date or not?” Carter asks a while later, the words coming out in a jumbled rush, so fast that Kara blinks for long moments as she tries to figure out what he’s just said.

She has to bite her tongue to stop her first question of ‘and just _who_ is this mysterious person?’, a flare of protectiveness welling up within her, but that would be Cat’s first line of questioning and, considering he isn’t with her right now, probably not what Carter’s after.

“I guess that depends on a few things? Like, where you’re going? And if it’s just the two of you? And I guess, most importantly – do you _want_ it to be a date?” She hedges, because he’s leaned away from her to sit up straight, still staring ahead and twisting his pencil around and around in his hands.

“I don’t _know_.” He sounds miserable, and Kara’s heart breaks for him. “How…” He trails off, curling his hands around the edge of the swing and clutching it so hard that his arms shake, his face pale as he whispers, “how do you know if you’re gay?”

“Is it… this person, is it Jaime?” Kara guesses, because she’d seen the two of them at the ice rink and Cat had already sort of prepped her for this and maybe she should have _listened_ a little more because she’s not entirely sure that she’s cut out for this.

Carter is terrified and awkward and nervous, and so is _she_ , and this is probably going to be a disaster.

“Maybe,” Carter answers quietly, still refusing to look Kara in the eye, and she smiles softly as she reaches out a hand to settle on one of his shoulders and squeezes gently.

“Do you like him? As more than a friend?”

“I… I think so. But I’ve never really had any friends.” He’s still biting at his bottom lip, brows drawn into a frown. “So I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell the difference.”

“But you like spending time with him? Want to spend more time with him?” Carter nods. “Well, then, maybe try not to worry so much about the rest just yet? You’ve got a lot of time to figure it out. Where did he ask you to go?”

“Just to the movies,” he shrugs. “But he asked me to go and see a superhero film and it’s one he hates and I like.”

“If he’s willing to put up with that, then he’s a keeper, kid,” Kara tells him seriously, nudging his shoulder with her own and grinning when she finally gets to see him smile.

“Do you think my Mom will be okay with it?”

“With you dating? No, because you’re her little angel and she’ll say you’re too young and you’re growing up too fast and blah, blah, blah.” Carter laughs, relaxing back against her, the tension easing free from his shoulders. “But I’ll talk her around,” she tells him, “and she likes Jaime, and how much you smile around him.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm.”

“Thanks, Kara.” He turns to throw his arms around her neck and she holds him close, more touched than she’ll ever let him know that he’d chosen her to confide in – she just hopes that she’s actually been helpful, and that he won’t shy away from coming to her again in the future.

“You two look cosy.” Kara glances over Carter’s head to see Cat standing on the deck, cheeks flushed from the wine but her eyes and her smile soft as she takes in the sight of the two of them, and Kara wonders how long she’s been watching. “Is there enough room for me on that thing?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” Kara replies with a look of consideration, and Cat swats at her shoulder as she makes her way towards them, folding herself down on Carter’s other side.

He glances at his Mom and nods to himself before opening his mouth, no doubt about to tell her about what’s on his mind, too, and Kara takes that as her cue to leave – but Carter catches her sleeve in his hand and shakes his head, eyes begging her to stay, and Kara smiles and squeezes his hand and sits back down beside him.

“Kara says I shouldn’t worry about it too much,” he tells Cat when he’s finished his story about Jaime and the way he gives him butterflies, and Cat catches Kara’s eyes over the top of his head with a proud smile.

“Kara’s right,” Cat replies quietly. “You shouldn’t. Remember what I’ve always told you? If it’s meant to happen - ”

“It will,” Carter finishes. “Like you falling over Kara’s stuff in the hall?” Kara grins at the memory, at Cat’s rare display of clumsiness and supposes she should thank her dedication to her work for making her so distracted, focused solely on her phone, because she has no idea if they’d be here, like this, tonight, had they not met that day.

She owes a lot to Carter, she knows, because if not for his interest in her painting and his immediate ease around her, then Cat probably wouldn’t have spared her a second glance, would have never let things pass beyond a mutual attraction and god, what a miserable past few months that would have meant for them both.

“Yes, sweetheart, exactly like that.” Cat’s eyes glow in the night, soft and lovely and glittering with warmth, and Kara knows that she is thinking of the same things, the impossibilities that had brought the two of them together.

“So I can go to the movies?”

“You can go to the movies,” Cat agrees, and Carter _beams_. “As long as you promise you’ll keep me up to date with whatever’s happening between the two of you. If it ever goes beyond a platonic relationship.”

“I promise, Mom.” He gives her a quick hug before scrambling to his feet. “I’m going to go let him know.” He bounces back into the house looking considerably lighter than he has for the rest of the afternoon, like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders, and both she and Cat watch him go with matching smiles.

“I told you he’d come to you,” Cat says softly, once the door has shut behind him, as Kara is drawing Cat into her arms and shifting them so that they’re lying down, Kara sandwiching herself between the back of the bench and Cat’s body, pressing their foreheads together as she traces her index finger along Cat’s hip.

“Does it bother you?”

“Not as much as I thought it would,” she admits quietly, and Kara smiles, Cat shifting to wipe it away with a sweet, lingering kiss. “You’re perfect with him.”

“You mean I’m not perfect in general?” She says it just to make Cat roll her eyes, grins when she does before turning more serious. “I’m still scared of over-stepping. Or messing up with him.”

“You’re doing an outstanding job so far.” Cat reaches up a hand to catch a strand of Kara’s hair between her fingers, toying idly with strands of blonde and making her shiver at the light touch.

“You really think so?” Cat hums, her eyes, close enough for Kara to see the flecks of gold that she can never replicate on canvas, shining with honesty, and Kara feels a flood of gratitude settle through her, tightens her hold on Cat’s hip to tug her impossibly closer and sighing when their lips touch once again.

This kiss is decidedly less sweet – Cat’s tongue delves into her mouth and her hands tangle in her hair and she licks at the back of Kara’s teeth and sucks on her tongue and nips at Kara’s bottom lip hard enough to make her gasp – and when she pulls away, satisfied smirk on her lips, Kara is left breathless and dizzy, and immediately wanting to do it again.

All she can hear is the distant crash of the waves and Cat’s quiet moan as she kisses her again, sliding a hand beneath her sweatshirt (one of Kara’s sweatshirts, she’s only just realised, oversized and with her college logo printed proudly on the front, and god, does Kara love it when Cat wears her things, and she _knows_ exactly what it does to her and Cat had probably worn it on purpose, damn her), to drag her fingertips over bare skin.

She groans upon discovering that Cat isn’t wearing a thing beneath it, not even a bra, and Cat’s fingers tighten hard in her hair when Kara runs a blunt fingernail across one of her nipples, Cat arching into her, warm and perfect against her.

If Kara had her way, she’d spend the entire night like this, but there’s a house full of her family less than two feet away. There’s a creaky floorboard just before the back door that Kara is well-attuned to, and when she hears it she’s quick to snatch her hand out from under Cat’s clothes and settle it back at her hip, turning the hot and dirty kisses they’ve been trading like oxygen to something sweet and chaste, instead, just as the door creaks open and Alex sticks her head outside.

“Food’s ready, lovebirds,” she announces, and she knows Cat and Kara well enough by now that her eyes are firmly closed lest she see something she’d really rather wouldn’t (she’s already walked in on them more times than Kara would like, but if she would just learn to _knock_ then they wouldn’t keep having the same problem), turning and retreating back into the house a moment later.

“How did you know she was coming?” Cat asks as she uses a hand on Kara’s shoulder to push herself so that she’s sitting upright, running a hand through her hair as she tries to catch her breath.

“There’s a noisy floorboard,” Kara explains, sitting up slowly and smirking when Cat tuts when she sees the state of her head, messy from Cat’s fingers, letting the other woman make it look a little less like they’d just been making out like a couple of horny teenagers. “Alex and I are both well aware of it. She probably stomped on it to make sure I heard.”

“Does that mean I’m not the first lover you’ve manhandled on this porch swing?” Cat asks with an arched brow, and Kara grins and ducks forward to kiss her one last time.

“No, but you’re definitely the hottest.” Cat smiles, pleased, and Kara takes her hand once they’re both presentable and tugs her back inside.

Judging from the face Carter makes, and the smirks on Alex’s, Clark’s and Lois’ faces as Cat and Kara sit at the dining room table, they haven’t been entirely successful.

Kara doesn’t care, though.

She just grins instead, because her girlfriend is hot as hell and she’s the luckiest woman alive.

Lois and Cat bicker like sisters over dinner, much to everyone else’s amusement, and Clark and Kara keep catching each other’s eye and exchanging wry smiles as they listen to the two of them. Carter is busy telling Alex and Eliza about his latest plans for the science fair, which is happening in just a few weeks, and Kara can’t wait to see the end result because she doesn’t understand what they’re talking about half the time and it’ll be nice to actually _see_ it instead of nodding along and pretending that she knows exactly what’s happening when he and Alex go into, what she and Cat had affectionately dubbed, full-on nerd mode.

Kara is content to listen to them all talk, her hand heavy and warm on Cat’s thigh beneath the table as she sips at her drink once they’ve all finished eating, all of these people who mean the world to her.

The last time she’d been here at Christmas it had been only her, Alex and Eliza, with Clark and Lois spending the holidays with the Lane side of their family tree, and while it had been nice, because it always was whenever the three Danvers women were together, it wasn’t like _this_ , loud and chaotic and _brilliant_.

She wants this every holiday for the rest of her life.

Afterwards, whilst Cat, Lois and Eliza clean up and Alex and Carter disappear outside to stargaze, Clark and Kara head down to the beach by the side of the house, gathering up armfuls of firewood and taking them with them to set up for the Midvale tradition of Clark and Alex’s New Year’s Eve firework show.

Kara and Alex had already set up a ring of stones for the fire to keep them all warm, and she and Clark deposit the wood in the centre of it before bringing down the boxes of fireworks he’s been storing in the garage for tonight, and they set the fire going as they wait for Alex to head down to help him get them ready to go.

“C’mere, little one,” Clark says once the fire is roaring, reaching out to pull her into a bear hug tight enough to lift her off the ground just like he had when she was little. She laughs, breathless, delighted by the gesture and by the nickname that she so rarely hears now, but that her mother and her aunt had used to call her when she was younger. “You okay?” He asks when he releases her, his blue eyes, so similar to her own, appraising her carefully.

“Never been better,” she tells him, and god, she _means_ it. She’s still half-convinced that these last few months have been nothing but a dream, that she’ll wake up in her apartment in New York City, blinking sleep out of her eyes and remembering a pair of haunting green eyes.

Because it _feels_ like a dream, and it’s not perfect, because sometimes they’ll have to push back date night or Cat will snap because she’s had a hard day at work, or Kara will say something that she shouldn’t or she’ll let Carter get away with something Cat would never and earn herself a lecture, but nothing in life ever is, and Kara’s pretty sure that this thing with Cat is the closest she’s ever going to get.

“Yeah, it shows.” Clark gives her one of those hundred-watt smiles, the ones that had never failed to make every girl in a fifty mile radius swoon until the day he’d met his future wife. “She your Lois Lane?”

Kara chuckles at the phrase that Clark’s friends had come up with when they’d seen how hard and how fast he’d fallen for Lois, the one that meant you’d found your future wife.

“I think she might be,” Kara murmurs, biting her lip when she sees Cat appear on the horizon, picking her way delicately down onto the beach in her sandals, still clad in Kara’s sweatshirt, Alex in tow.

“I’m glad you’re happy,” he tells her, slinging an arm around her shoulder to pull her into his side. “I’ve always worried about you.” She turns to face him, finds a small, sad smile on his face that she knows too well. “After everything. You lost so much so young, and I swore I’d always look out for you.”

“And you did.” She leans into him with a smile, because he’d been so young and had no idea what to do with a teenager, had found her a warm and loving family and always watched her back.

“Sometimes I wonder if I could’ve done better. Stuck around longer.”

“You had your own life to live. And I turned out just fine.”

“Yeah, you did. And you went and landed yourself the most powerful person in National City.” Kara grins as he gives a wry shake of his head. “I don’t think you can do much better than that.” Kara’s smile softens, though she feels a flicker of surprise, because _she_ knows that, but she knows the stories that whirl around about Cat, wouldn’t blame Clark for believing them when he’s seen how she and Lois get along. “That surprise you?” He asks, and Kara should have expected him to pick up on it – very little gets past either him or Lois, and Kara almost feels sorry for their future kids because they’re not going to be able to get away with anything.

“Maybe a little.”

“You can’t do what I do without hearing about Cat Grant,” Clark tells her, and Kara glances behind them to see how close Cat is to reaching them but she’s hanging back with Carter, giving her and Clark some space, and Kara’s filled with more gratitude than she knows what to do with. “You just can’t, especially working where she got her foot on the ladder. And she’s an incredible woman, Kara, the things she’s faced and overcome, it’s… well, amazing.”

“Sure you don’t have a crush on her?” Kara teases, and Clark shoves at her shoulder, making her rock back on her heels. “Don’t let Lois hear you say these things.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it,” he grins. “But I know what they say about Cat, all the rumours, and when I saw the articles about the two of you, I wasn’t thrilled, I won’t lie to you. Lois had to stop me from marching over to National City and asking you what you were thinking.” Kara bites her lip to hide a smile, because she can imagine that scenario perfectly. “Lois reminded me that you were twenty-five and old enough to make your decisions, and she _also_ reminded me of everything Cat’s done, how dedicated she is and how fiercely she protects the things that are dear to her, and that she’d do that in a relationship, too. And I wasn’t sold, not entirely, until last week when I saw you together. I’m a journalist and I can’t find the words to describe the way she looks at you, or the way you look at her. So when I say that I don’t think you can do much better than her, you better believe it.”

“Thank you.” She hugs him close, smiles when he presses a kiss against her temple, just like he always used to do whenever he babysat for her and tucked her into bed.

“Just let me be best man at your wedding.”

“What if I wanted you to walk me down the aisle?” He leans away so that he can look at her, blinking down at her with surprise in his eyes.

“Really?”

“Well, yeah, dummy. You’re my family. And I really want to see you cry when you give me away.” He laughs, delighted, and scoops her into another hug that lifts her clear of the ground, spinning her around and around until she’s screeching and dizzy, and when he sets her back on the sand she tries to take a step and would have fallen if not for a steady hand catching her waist.

“I’ll go find Alex and start getting this show on the road,” Clark announces as Kara turns towards Cat, slinking back the way Cat had come from as Kara draws her girlfriend into her arms.

“You’re very smiley,” Cat tells her, winding her arms around Kara’s neck and gazing up at her with soft eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kara flattens her hands on the small of Cat’s back to bring her close. “I have the greatest girlfriend in the world,” Cat’s lips curve into a dazzling smile, “who has the greatest son in the world, and I’m surrounded by my family, who I love more than anything, ready to ring in the New Year. Although,” Kara adds, gaze turning thoughtful enough to make Cat raise an eyebrow. “I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to say goodbye to the last one, when it brought me to you.”

“Always the romantic,” Cat teases, and then she’s rising up on her toes to press her lips against Kara’s, gentle and sweet.

“That’s me,” Kara murmurs when Cat leans away, her thumb sliding reverently along the curve of Kara’s cheek. “At least when it comes to you.”

“Well, I, for one, am eager to wave this year goodbye.” Kara narrows her eyes, and Cat’s smile makes her heart thud in her chest. “Because it means I get to usher in another where I might get to spend the entirety of it with you in my life.”

“ _Now_ who’s the romantic?”

“Oh, shut up.” Kara’s laugh is caught by Cat’s lips, echoes into her mouth as she pulls her down for another kiss, and Kara can tell by the way Cat’s fingers clutch at the back of her neck that she longs to make it a little less PG-13 than their surroundings call for.

Cat is smiling when they part, keeps her eyes closed for one long moment and god, she’s so beautiful in the moonlight, the light from the fire at Kara’s back casting elegant shadows over her face, and her mouth opens before she can even think about what she’s saying.

“I love you.”

Cat’s eyes snap open, lips parting in surprise, and she hadn’t meant to just… _blurt_ it out like that, it was supposed to be well-thought out and she had a _speech_ , and oh, god, she can’t read the look in Cat’s eyes as she stares up at her with a dazed expression, and what has she _done_?

“Um,” Kara shuffles her weight from foot to foot when Cat doesn’t say a word, though Kara can see the pulse jumping in her neck and doesn’t know if that’s a good _sign_ or not. “I just… I mean, you don’t have to sa - ”

“I love you, too,” Cat breathes, looking up at her with wide eyes that, unless Kara’s mistaken (and she might be, considering her brain is apparently not working today), glitter with unshed tears.

“You do?” Kara sounds hopeful enough for Cat to clutch at her even tighter, pull her even closer, and Kara’s heart is so loud in her ears that it’s a wonder she can hear anything at all.

“Yes, you _idiot_ ,” and of course Cat would chastise her for her uncertainty, for believing that Cat wasn’t just as invested in this as she is, “of course I love you. I love you so much it terrifies me, but god, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She reaches a hand up from the back of Kara’s neck to cradle the side of her face, and it’s Kara who leans down to kiss her this time, open-mouthed and messy and _probably_ a little inappropriate if either Eliza or Carter are watching but she doesn’t _care_ because this might be the greatest moment of her life to date. 

Later she stands by the fire with Cat against her chest and Carter against Cat’s chest, Eliza and Lois on either side of Kara as they watch Alex and Clark dart around the beach to set the sky alight in a blaze of colours.

Cat’s face is alight with red and blue and gold when she turns to kiss Kara over her shoulder as the clock strikes midnight, Kara breathes ‘happy new year, love’ against her lips and prays that it will be the first of many more to come.


End file.
